Who Let the Dogs Out?

I apologize for the title but I could not help myself. The eighteenth century - the age of enlightenment - gave birth to more than the world's first modern republic. It gave birth to a more modern view of dogs. Scientists generally agree that there is good evidence that dogs were domesticated around 15,000 years ago. By 14,000 years ago, people were burying dogs, sometimes along with humans. The relationship between man and dogs has developed over thousands of years.

Wolf-Dog Companion

Working Dogs

Dogs are considered the first domesticated animals. The first domesticated dogs were used for hunting, but later became sheepdogs, war dogs, and watchdogs of all types. We are all aware of the uses of dogs in guarding sheep and home. But dogs were given other jobs as well. Turnspit dogs were used as a source of power, they turned a treadmill connected to a roasting spit. Similar arrangements were used for household duties such as churning butter. Dogs were trained to herd cattle. They were used as draft animals to pull small carts or sleds for farms, peddlers, or travelers, to deliver mail, and to pull carts carrying people for transportation or entertainment. In the case of the latter, dogs were trained to fight and race, with wages being placed on the results. This was very popular in the eighteenth century.

Dogs Returned from the Chase in  colonial time

Man’s Best Friend 

Over centuries of cohabitation the dog became “man’s best friend.” Yet there continued a negative context in the relationship in history. The Roman proverb, cave canem—beware of the dog, indicated a negative side to the esteemed creature. The playwright and poet William Shakespeare used the terms "dog" and "cur" to describe despicable people. But overall, the feeling of man toward dogs was very positive. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, "There are three faithful friends—an old wife, an old dog, and ready money."

Hunting dogs were companions and workers in the 18th century

Dogs of War

Frederick the Great &
His Beloved

War dogs came into use in ancient times. They were trained in combat as well as use as scouts, sentries, and trackers. The earliest use of war dogs in a battle recorded in classical sources was by Alyattes of Lydia against the Cimmerians around 600 BC. The Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Sarmatians, Baganda, Alans, Slavs, Britons, and the Romans all used dogs in war. During the Middle Ages, the nobility made gifts of war dog breeding stock. The Spanish conquistadors brought war dogs to America. They used armored dogs specifically trained to kill natives. These dogs were a mixed breed of deerhound and mastiff with padded armor and spiked collars. These animals were large and fearsome. Aztec and Inca warriors were terrified of them (who wouldn’t be?). The conquistadors usually unleashed the dogs just as the enemy was just about to break. This led to a route that often proved more lethal than the battle. Ponce De Leon reportedly used a brace these large war dogs of them to put down a slave rebellion in Puerto Rico. In the eighteenth century, the famed Prussian king and warlord Frederick the Great used dogs as battlefield messengers. A celebrated dog lover, he famously is quoted: “The more I see of men, the better I like my dog."

War dogs were used in ancient times

Yankee Doodle Dogs

Soldiers always had affection
for dogs

By the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775, dogs were well established and part of the culture of the thirteen colonies. However, they were not always welcome. In 1772, the city leaders of Williamsburg passed legislation called the Act to Prevent Mischief from Dogs that forbade anyone to own a female dog in the city. Residents could keep two male dogs as long as they wore marked collars. Strays would be put down. The time of the Yankee Doodle Spies ushered the beginning of
advocacy for animals. In 1776, an Anglican clergyman named Humphrey Primatt published a seminal work entitled: “A Dissertation on the Duty of Mercy and Sin of Cruelty to Brute Animals.” Sort of a Declaration of Independence for animals. The growing popularity of fox hunting in both England and the colonies created a need for hunting dogs. Although dogs traditionally herded livestock, carried messages, guarded their owners, and carried packs for their owners in addition to retrieving game. But they also became more popular as pets.  During the Revolutionary War, they provided also comfort for their owners who were far from home. Dogs were both working dogs and pets in colonial America. And of course, there were sporting dogs as well. While fighting, both British and American soldiers adopted stray dogs and other animals as they traveled. Many units in both armies kept dogs as pets and mascots. Let’s profile a few notables of the war who have a connection to the beloved canine.

Many British Regiments had dogs as
mascots

His Excellency

The premier figure of the Glorious Cause, George Washington loved dogs. As a Virginia planter, he was an avid hunter, and most of his dogs would have been used for hunting. Washington also owned Black and Tan Coonhounds.  Curiously, he named them:  Drunkard, Taster, Tippler, and Tipsy.  Just as Washington experimented in farming, he is reputed to have done so with his dogs, breeding coonhounds with staghounds. The Marquis de Lafayette, a close and long term friend of Washington, sent him seven staghounds to George as a gift. During the time of the Yankee Doodle Spies, these dogs were great hunters, bred to hunt using speed and sight. Three of Washington’s staghounds he named: Sweet Lips, Scentwell, and Vulcan. More names to amuse.

Dogs played no small part in a planter's life - especially the first planter

Charles Lee

Gen Charles Lee loved his dogs more
than people

One of the most controversial, eccentric, and distasteful characters was Major General Charles Lee. The former British officer, mercenary, and Virginia planter was a rival to Washington and second only to Washington in the Continental Army. Lee seemed to always be accompanied by a pack of hounds. He doted on them and treated them better than most of the people about him.  Once during a social event, he had his favorite dog, Spada, mount a chair and present his paw to Abigail Adams, also a dog lover. In December 1776, Lee was captured under mysterious circumstances while separated from his troops for a visit to White’s Tavern in Basking Ridge New Jersey. A British raiding party led by the equally notorious Banastre Tarleton captured Lee in the early morning hours and whisked him off to captivity. After his capture, Lee wrote Washington requesting that a servant and an aide-de-camp be sent to him along with “my dogs…as I never stood in greater need of their company than at present." I adapted Lee’s dogs into one of the plots of my novel, The Cavalier Spy (2012, Twilight Times Books). Lee’s relationship to the dogs plays a role in his search for Lee. And the dogs nearly frustrate his efforts, although they do not frustrate the efforts of Tarleton and the British.

 

Baron von Steuben

Italian Greyhound

“Baron” von Steuben, a  German officer who offered his services to America, served as inspector general and major general of the Continental Army.  Steuben played a critical role in retraining the Continental Army at Valley Forge. His “Blue Book” of drills served as the Army’s manual for years after the war. Less known is that Von Steuben loved dogs. His favorite was said to be an Italian greyhound named Azor. Azor went everywhere with Steuben. In that sense, he was much like his erstwhile master, Frederick the Great.

Von Steuben

William Howe

Gen Howe

The British commander in chief in North America, General Sir William Howe also had a fondness for canines.  During the Philadelphia campaign in 1777, Howe’s army barely fended off a surprise attack by Washington’s Continental Army. The battle was fought in the fog and more chaotic than most 18th century affairs. Washington’s divisions could not coordinate their movements because they could not see what was happening on the battlefield.  After some hard fighting, the Americans withdrew,
abandoning their capital to the British occupation. Somehow during the fog-enshrouded combat, a small dog was found by the Americans.  After the battle, they saw from his collar that he belonged to General Howe.  Many around Washington urged him to hold the dog as a form of revenge for the loss and defiance to the British commander. But ever the gentleman, Washington saw the situation differently.

He ordered the dog returned to Howe with this two-line message:

“General Washington’s compliments to General Howe does himself the pleasure to return him a dog, which accidentally fell into his hands, and by the inscription on the Collar appears to belong to General Howe.”

A fully documented as a draft of the note still exists in the archives, written in the handwriting of Washington’s aide-de-camp - Alexander Hamilton

Yankee Doodle Dog