"Dogs as weapon to hunting indians, slaves and Maroons." Topic

It seems that not only with cold steel and powder some people atack their "enemies" or "oponents" or "human prices". The Spanish dogs called Bloodhounds imported from Cuba (previously from Spain) were used for those pourpose.

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Any idea if "war-dogs" had been used at ACW too?.

Amicalement
Armand

You Should Give them Blacks to Eat": Waging Inter-American Wars of Torture and Terror
Sara E. Johnson
American Quarterly Volume 61, Number 1, March 2009

"In 1795 the Trelawney Town Maroons renewed hostilities against the British Jamaican colonial regime in what came to be known as the Second Maroon War. Combat between Maroon guerilla forces and approximately five thousand British soldiers and militia led to a stalemate, and it was this inability to get the upper hand that purportedly motivated the Jamaican Assembly to resort to canine warfare and import dogs from Cuba. R. C. Dallas, author of the earliest account chronicling this conflict, The History of the Maroons from their Origin to the Establishment of their Chief tribe at Sierra Leone, including the Expedition to Cuba, for the Purpose of Procuring Spanish Chasseurs (1803), credited the dogs with putting an ‘end to a war, in which force and military skill alone might have been foiled for years.'… Dallas interrupts his tale as it unfolds in Jamaica to include the adventures of Colonel W. D. Quarrell, a local planter and member of the legislature who traveled at the behest of the Jamaican Assembly to contract the chasseurs and their dogs in a small town on the outskirts of Havana. While in Cuba, Quarrell comments extensively on the chasseurs, the breeding of their dogs, and their particular aptitude for the hunt.14 The descriptions of the training required to turn the dogs into killers, and the resultant punishment meted out to their victims, are graphic. Dallas cites the following observations:
‘The dogs carried out by the Chasseurs del Rey are perfectly broken in, that is to say, they will not kill the object they pursue unless resisted. On coming up with a fugitive, they bark at him till he stops, then they crouch near him, terrifying him with a ferocious growl if he stirs. In this position they continue barking to give notice to the chasseurs, who come up and secure their prisoner . . . These people live with their dogs, from which they are inseparable. At home the dogs are kept chained, and when walking with their masters, are never unmuzzled, or let out of ropes, but for attack. . . . [Their] coat, or skin, is much harder than that of most dogs, and so must be the whole structure of the body, as the severe beatings he undergoes in training would kill any other species of dog . . . The chasseurs beat their dogs most unmercifully, using the flat sides of their heavy muschets [machetes]. [The chasseurs] receive good pay from the Government, besides private rewards for particular and extraordinary services. They are a very hardy, brave, and desperate set of people, scrupulously honest, and remarkably faithful. The activity of the chasseurs no negro on earth can elude.'"

Amicalement
Armand

They are a very hardy, brave, and desperate set of people, scrupulously honest, and remarkably faithful. The activity of the chasseurs no negro on earth can elude.'"

They are made to sound like paragons of virtue!

But I am surprised that dogs and handlers could do what the army could not.

I have never heard of them being called "war dogs". However, the American bloodhound was one nasty beast. The dogs were trained by professional slave catchers and during the war the home guard used them to catch runaway southern soldiers as well as slaves.

I do know of one more militant use of the dogs. In 1863 Jones and Jasper county Mississippi revolted from the confederacy. The revolt was led by Newton Knight formerly of, if I remember correctly, the 7th Miss infantry. In a attempt to put down the "Kingdom of Jones" the Confederate army used blood hounds to track down members of Knight's partisan company. (Knight made use of the swamps as a refuge and base.) After the war Knight said they feared the dogs far worse than the Confederate soldiers. You could ambush the soldiers, kill a few and the rest would run away. In opposition, the dog packs would tear his men to pieces before they could kill all the dogs. He did have one effective defense against the dogs that the slaves taught him. His men carried powdered red pepper that they would spread in their tracks on the ground.

Books on the Jones county war:
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Don't know about ACW, but there's at least one book about dogs being used by the Spaniards when they took over the New World. They had previously used them in the Canary Islands to great effect and in the same ways mentioned here. The Indios in the New World were terrified of them because they were trained war dogs – mostly greyhounds and mastiffs, and were taught to go for the throat or the side below the ribcage – and bigger than anything they had seen over here (Chihuahuas were the filling on the tacos). The Spaniards used them in fighting the Indians, in tracking down runaways (where the dogs were allowed to kill the Indian) and as a combination punishment for percieved crime/Spaniard entertainment (in which the Indian was given a head start and then the dogs were released after him and again allowed to kill him).

"Chihuahuas were the filling on the tacos".

Ah, I now understand the Taco Bell mascot choice much better now…..

During the March to the Sea, Sherman's men shot all the bloodhounds they came across, knowing how they were used to track escaping slaves.

When the Spanish controlled Louisiana, they one of the tasks assigned to their colored and Pardos militia companies were to hunt down escaped slaves. They were regarded as the best for the job. This is one reason why a number of this militia companies were already on hand when Spain declared war on Britian during the AmRev.

The Indians had brought dogs with them over the Bering Land Bridge. They hunted with them. And they ate them too.
The nose of the European is not as sensitive to molecules of things that you are chasing/tracking as that of a dog.
My buddy has watched a police bloodhound work and says the dog is amazing. The particular dog was used by the FBI [who flew him and his handler across the country] to help track down the last anthrax "bomber" a few years back.
Count Natokina.

I've encountered a couple of references to the use of dogs by settlers in skirmishes with Aboriginal warriors on the colonial Australian frontier. In one case they played a central role in the defence of a homestead under attack.

Who needs dogs ,we have drones and 2 generations of vidiots!

The War of 1812 era Creek Civil War of 1812-13 has a number of references of Indian vs Indian and American vs Indian battles near pallisaded towns of the Muskogee. One comment that was common involved havign to silence the dogs before and during the attack on a town.

Dogs used in the defence of a homestead was quite common on the frontier. They was an early warning of suspicious people in the area.

In the Muskogee Museum in Oklahoma, ther is a great oil painting of a Lower Creek (Pro-American) rushing onto his porchto confront hostile Red Stick warrios. By his side is a dog rusing with him.

The account I recall reading (The Maroons of Jamaica) said the British victory in the Second Maroon war was the result of massive numerical superiority, mountain howitzers and fortified posts, though I'm sure the dogs were used too.

re bloodhounds
watching an episode of Mythbusters on Dogs. watching the blood hounds(and trainers) work was amazing. you could sometimes confuse the dog a little. streams for instance . but the trainer could help the dog a little and be back on the trail.
the other thing that impressed the guys is how fast the hounds go in pursuit.it was not a leisurely stroll

larry

In WWII, the French underground would get the German shepherds off their track by sprinkling dried blood mixed with cocaine around. The dogs would stop, get stoned and lose complete track of what they were doing.