I know everyone has a suggested reading list for books they recommned to people who are interested in the hobby or the ACW..

I was just forwarded this book from a friend who works with small kids.  It is Civil War related, but I thought I would share it with others to see if anyone else had seen it.

DADBLAMED UNION ARMY COW-
She just won’t git! A Union army soldier can’t shake his dadblamed cow in this uplifting tale based on a true story.

"THAT DADBLAMED COW!" She follows her owner into the Union army and then straight on south to fight in the war. She needs unstomped grass to eat, she gets stuck in the mud, and she’s just plain DANGEROUS in battle. But this peculiar cow also gives the weary soldiers some surprising comforts. Based on stories and newspaper reports from the Civil War and full of lively illustrations, this is a heartwarming tale of one wonderfully dadblamed PERSISTENT cow.



 

--Last edited by lhsnj on 2007-10-19 09:22:55 --

Ummm...maybe Hank or Linda can verify this but, I don't think there were Holstine cows in the US during the CW.

Me, member of the anti farby cow league. LOL!

Mooooo...

From Okalahoma State University....dairy cattle history (only ones from 19th century or prior)I have included country of origin and year first imported into America.

Ayrshire-Scotland-1822

Brown Swiss-Switzerland-1969

Dutch Belted-Holland-1815 (popular breed in paintings)

Guernsey-Isle of Guernsey-1840

Holstein-Friesian-Netherlands-1852 (Available during the CW)

Jersey-Isle of Jersey-1850s

Kerry-Ireland-1818

Milking Devon-England-1623

Milking Shorthorn-England-1783

Hope this helps, of course the Spanish had cattle in North America a long time prior...

Oppps Brown Swiss was to be 1869...little typo

As I recall, a few Holstein cattle were imported into Boston, got sick in an epidemic, died, and therefore got a bad reputation in the U.S., until new imports were brought after the war and the breed caught on. The Holstein-Friesian area had been well known for its milk, so it seemed like a good idea in theory to import the cattle, but it just didn't work. Not to say that a few individual cattle may have been brought over here and there earlier, interbred and got swallowed up in the general gene pool, but that's probably the story behind the 1852 date in the list.

Strangely enough, when I first glanced at the illustration, I "read" the dark spots on the cow as dark brownish red, like a Shorthorn, due to the weird backlighting and cartoonish colors, and didn't even catch that yes indeed, the illustrator was apparently drawing a Holstein, because that's all he knew about milk cows.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

Found this http://books.google.com/books?id=T2g6AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA279&dq=holstein+chenery&output=html which talks about early importations (starting at the bottom of the page and continuing to the next). Chenery is the fellow's name I was thinking of, and here's a note about the epidemic:

http://www.common-place.org/vol-02/no-03/sacks/sacks-3.shtml

Quote :

The policy of aggressively fighting infectious disease among livestock was first introduced in Massachusetts in 1859, when deadly pleuropneumonia was discovered in a cow in Worcester County that was traced back to a herd of imported Holsteins outside of Boston. The disease spread, and the Massachusetts legislature set up a cattle control board with broad powers to quarantine and destroy. Thousands of animals were slaughtered, and the disease was wiped out by 1867.

Since the book's based on a true story--and honestly I swear I recall reading something like that--the breed of the cow is probably known, and I'd bet it's either native or shorthorn. Be interesting to see.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

As an aside.....Holstein marking are just like a finger print. No two are alike. From working with expensive registered Holsteins they now take a digital photo to put with the papers. In days past they drew the pattern on the registration papers in a blank cow form. In case interesting minds want to know.  

Quote :

GrumpyDave wrote : Me, member of the anti farby cow league. LOL!

I noticed that first thing, even before I read anything else about the book. It would have been much better to use a shorthorn (red and white) for the illustration.

Shorthorns were good as oxen, as beef, and especially for their milk.  Ohio had a large importation thing going in the 1830s and 40s where they were buying up and auctioning off quality shorthorns in Columbus, with the hopes of improving Ohio's cattle industry.  They were successful.  

Our "Lady Washington" was a fine example of a [milking] shorthorn. Fantastic temperament; not too big, but big enough to freshen (birth); and an easy milker. BTW, there are two kinds of shorthorn in the 20th/21st century, the milking and the beef.  The milking is the primary shorthorn of 1860 US.

Linda.

Marc

Thanks for the dates on the cows.  

Hank and Linda, thanks for the information.  I just found it to be an amusing topic for a childrens book.

I am sure there are other of those types of childrens books that take a rare occurance and use them to pique a childs interest in history.  

your right about that greg... we have several books here for the kids. and i frequently have to hide some that are not for kids eyes! the ones they do have are quite dog eared though. they are constantly reading them.

Okay, this is great. I think this is the first time I've seen a thread about the historic accuracy of livestock and you saw it here first on the Common Ground.

Quote :

I think this is the first time I've seen a thread about the historic accuracy of livestock and you saw it here first on the Common Ground.

I'll be darned. It seems like that kind of thing gets discussed all the time, but I searched on the AC forum for Shorthorn, Shanghai, Devon, Cashmere, that kind of thing, with no luck except the numerous cavalry horse threads.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

Quote :

toptimlrd wrote : Okay, this is great. I think this is the first time I've seen a thread about the historic accuracy of livestock and you saw it here first on the Common Ground.

And all of this because of some childrens book about a cow that goes off to war..  

Quote :

hanktrent wrote :   I'll be darned. It seems like that kind of thing gets discussed all the time, but I searched on the AC forum for Shorthorn, Shanghai, Devon, Cashmere, that kind of thing, with no luck except the numerous cavalry horse threads. Hank Trent hanktrent@voyager.net

Hank, maybe it was lost in one of the past crashes. I just don't remember seeing one..... horses yes and possibly poultry but never cattle.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't there also been some major changes in swine breeds since the Civil War?  

i would think so bill.

so can we talk which frogs are period correct for my boys to catch?

Bill,

Berkshire, I believe, were fairly common hogs of the period.

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/swine/

Is a good place to start when looking at hogs and provides brief histories.

As far as fowl, I believe the Barred Rock was the breed that may have been most prevalent in the North. They became big in the early 1800’s. I had a web page for fowl but can’t find it right now.

Hope this helps,
Christopher

One thing to remember is that many breeds didn't keep a registry until the late 19th early 20th century, so most "breeds" didn't exist by that name.  For example, in cattle, the most typical breeds were the:

Scrub/Native cattle, (milking) shorthorn/durham, (north) devon, hereford, ayrshire, alderney/guernsey/jersey. Both descrïptions of cattle in parenthesis signifies the modern name "Milking Shorthorn" and "North Devon," in the period they were just shorthorn and devon.

Typical breeds of fowl included:

Dunghill/grade, hamburg, dominique, dorking, poland/crested/topknot, spanish, and game.  The Shanghai and other China fowl were falling out of favor and were no longer being kept pure.  Of course don't forget geese, ducks, turkeys, and guineas.

Horses were more categorized by duty rather than breed:

The "general purpose" horse being the most common. Runner/galloper/thoroughbred (heats tended to be 1-5 miles long), hunter, trotter/roadster/Morgan, draught/omnibus.  Again, mules and donkeys.

In sheep there were the Natives, (Spanish, French, Saxon, Silesian, and American) Merino, Leicesters, Cotswold, and South Down.

The above are varieties that I've found in multiple period books describing typical breeds of livestock from the perspective of the Civil War era people.  Of course there may have been other "breeds" as well, but these are the more common, everyday animals you'd be most apt to see if visiting a Civil War era farm.

Just some notes from past studies. Oh, and these don't tend to include anything particular of the west, such as the Spanish/Texas longhorn, and such.

Linda.  

--Last edited by Linda Trent on 2007-10-22 15:20:28 --