Sallie of the 11th Pennsylvania Infantry at Gettysburg

Pictured is the memorial to Army dog “Sallie” aka Sallie Ann Jarrett, an America Pit Bull of the 11th Pennsylvania Infantry, who accompanied her unit throughout nearly all of the American Civil War, until she was killed in action in February 1865.

At Gettysburg, Sallie was noted for standing watch for two days over the fallen men of her regiment.

As Wikipedia notes:

Sallie adapted quickly to army life, joining the soldiers at their drills and establishing her place beside the color guard for dress parade. Whenever the regiment left camp, her chosen position was at the head of the march with the horse ridden by Coulter, the regiment's colonel. Sallie quickly became known to other regiments brigaded with the 11th Pennsylvania as "Dick Coulter's dog." On two occasions, she marched with the regiment in review before President Abraham Lincoln....When the veterans of the 11th erected their monument on the Gettysburg Battlefield in 1890, a life-size bronze statue of Sallie was included on a granite pedestal in a place of honor at the front of the monument. Her statue lies below the towering bronze figure of a skirmisher, recalling the soldiers who fought beside her and whom she guarded on Gettysburg's fields.

Gettysburg is just 40 minutes up the road from me, and is a good place to bicycle.  For those taking a two-wheeled tour, there is another dog statue on the battlefield.

The monument to the Irish Brigade at Gettysburg features an Irish Wolf Hound. Not said is the fact that no Irish Wolfhound was at Gettysburg during the battle.  

The statue of the dog is supposed to represent fidelity.  

Ironically it was sculpted by William R. O’Donovan a confederate soldier at Gettysburg who was fighting in opposition to American Union forces.  

Only in America do we celebrate fidelity with statues of dogs that were not there, sculpted by a man who was a traitor to the nation.