Sallie Ann Jarrett was the canine mascot of the

11th Pennsylvania Infantry The 11th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment was a Union army regiment that participated in the American Civil War. It had the distinction of being the oldest unit in continuous service from Pennsylvania. History The 11th Pennsylvania was recruite ...

, accompanying the soldiers throughout nearly the entire

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, until she was killed in action in February 1865. Sallie, as the men would come to call her, was born in the spring of 1861 and was described by Colonel Richard Coulter as "a brindle, bull-terrier, of a fine breed," who "showed marks of blood." Her actual breed was American Pitbull. She was given to Capt. William R. Terry of Company I in May of that year by a resident of West Chester,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, where the regiment was training at Camp Wayne, on the town's former fairgrounds. The men named the pup in honor of two people, a young lady whom they admired and their original commanding officer, Colonel Phaon Jarrett. 11TH PVI

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 Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...

. With the soldiers, Sallie learned to endure the hardships of campaigning. She did not shrink from battle but accompanied the regiment into the fighting, taking a position at the front lines and barking furiously at the enemy. She saw action in each of her regiment's engagements, among them Cedar Mountain,

Second Bull Run The Second Battle of Bull Run or Battle of Second Manassas was fought August 28–30, 1862, in Prince William County, Virginia, as part of the American Civil War. It was the culmination of the Northern Virginia Campaign waged by Confederat ...

Antietam The Battle of Antietam (), or Battle of Sharpsburg particularly in the Southern United States, was a battle of the American Civil War fought on September 17, 1862, between Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia and Union G ...

, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, and Petersburg. While with the regiment, Sallie also had a litter of pups 5 different times. On July 1, 1863, the first day of fighting at Gettysburg, Sallie became separated from the regiment during the Union retreat to Cemetery Hill, and the soldiers feared she had been killed. But she had remained behind on Oak Ridge, where the 11th had fought on the first day, and it was there that she was found days later, still guarding her wounded and dead companions. Sallie was returned to her regiment and soldiered on until a few weeks before the war's end. During the

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, sometimes more simply referred to as the Battle of Spotsylvania (or the 19th-century spelling Spottsylvania), was the second major battle in Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's 1864 ...

, Sallie was hit in the neck and treated by the surgeon. The ball could not be removed but Sallie survived and eventually the ball worked its way out. On February 6, 1865, during the Union advance at Hatcher's Run,

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

, she was struck by a bullet and killed. Despite being under heavy fire, several soldiers put aside their arms to bury her on the spot.Stouffer and Cubbison, p. 62. When the veterans of the 11th erected their monument on the

Gettysburg Battlefield The Gettysburg Battlefield is the area of the July 1–3, 1863, military engagements of the Battle of Gettysburg within and around the borough of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Locations of military engagements extend from the site of the first shot ...

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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jarrett, Sallie Ann Pennsylvania in the American Civil War Individual dogs in the United States Dog mascots 1865 animal deaths Dog monuments

See also

References

Further reading