Sallie of Gettysburg

I took the wee dogs and the e-bike to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania today.

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.

I was rather shocked to find out how small the statue was. Clearly smaller than life size — the wee terrier on the left is 9 pounds on a heavy day.

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 [note: it's NOT] 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.