09/03/2025
Did you know....Mascots were often found with Civil War soldiers, and none were more popular than dogs.
Curly, a "beautiful, bright-eyed" brown and white water spaniel, was given to the 11th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in 1861 by a woman who said "he was no good on earth for anything she knew of; so he ought to make a good soldier."
Curly kept his cool under pressure in the face of battle, actively joining his comrades in arms, barking between the lines during skirmishes and staying on the field with the wounded. He traveled with the 11th from Ohio to West Virginia, taking a train to Harper's Ferry, then supporting the troops in the Battles of Second Bull Run, Frederick City, South Mountain, and Antietam.
Curly suffered numerous injuries, including being shot in the neck during training, wounds on the battlefield in Virginia, a broken leg in Kentucky, and being wounded in the shoulder by a Minie ball at the Battle of Lookout Mountain in Tennessee. Around his neck, Curly wore a tag with the inscription "I am Company A's dog. Whose dog are you? 11th Ohio Volunteer Infantry U.S.A."
Miraculously, Curly managed to survive the war and was returned to Ohio, where it was said the Governor meant “to make him an honorary member of the Capital,” returning from the battlefield a "war-worn veteran marked with honorable wounds, and with a history of which the proudest might well be proud."
Curly lived out his days at the Disabled Volunteer Soldiers facility in Dayton.
Information from: T.L. Stewart, 11th O.V.I., The Dog of a Ohio Regiment, May 5, 1888 and The Louisville Journal, 1864, reprinted in New Orleans Daily Picayune, July 29, 1864
Image credit: ROSTER Eleventh Ohio Infantry Association Proceedings 21st Reunion 1893 Proceedings 22d Reunion 1894, Reformed Publishing Co., Print, Dayton, O. 50 pages, shared by Ohio In The Civil War page
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