In The Hearts Of His Countrymen
“Were we discussing Lincoln’s dogs the other day?” Bernie says. Search me. All I remember is Nudie Cohn. Did he have dogs?
“So we should probably mention Washington, since he’s pretty much always number two on the list of great presidents.” Bernie sips his coffee. “I wonder who usually comes in last,” he says. I don’t know that one either.
“Anyway, Washington liked dogs a lot. He bred them for his fox hunts, so he had lots of hounds especially. Some were Truelove, Tippler and Sweet Lips. At the Battle of Germantown in October 1777, a little terrier got loose from the British side and wandered onto the battlefield. The dog was rescued by the Americans and from the collar they could see he belonged to General Howe. Some wanted to keep him as a way of annoying the enemy, but Washington called a truce and had the dog returned. He even wrote a note to General Howe – I think it’s in the Library of Congress.”
Huh? Missed that whole thing. I go to the door. Isn’t it time for a walk?
Tags: Battle of Germantown, Lincoln, Nudie Cohn, Washington
This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 9:02 am and is filed under Chet The Dog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
4:10 am on December 18th, 2009
Chet, did you know that to honor Washington's love of dogs that Mount Vernon (Washington's home) not only lets dogs in free but allows them everywhere on the plantation except in the house? They even have bowls of water and treats for the canine nation. Now that's the way to honor the nation within the nation by one of our founding fathers. Hope you can come to Washington sometime soon.
4:35 am on December 18th, 2009
Calling a truce to return a dog! Wonderful!
That's the greatest thing I've ever read about Washington….which makes me wonder…is it true?
4:48 am on December 18th, 2009
I agree. *That* makes me deeply proud to be an American.
Not that I'm not proud of it for other reasons. That's just especially cool!
5:06 am on December 18th, 2009
Very cool. I found Washington's "letter" at the Library of Congress website! Says, "General Washington's compliments to General Howe, does himself the pleasure to return a Dog, which accidentally fell into his hands, and by the inscription on the collar, appears to belong to General Howe. October 7, 1777".
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/P?mgw:1:./tem…
5:33 am on December 18th, 2009
Chet, I enjoy the way you stick to the essentials.
11:30 am on December 18th, 2009
I've just come to a scary part in Thereby Hangs a Tail. At least it's not as nerve-wracking as a cliffhanger on the blog since I can keep reading.
8:09 am on December 19th, 2009
A couple of the scariest scenes I read all year were in Dog On It, so I can sympathize, B. Stover. Chet, it's a good storyteller who can make us fear so deeply for our heroes. I hope they're okay!
5:29 pm on December 19th, 2009
Scary for sure. The worst and scariest part in Dog On It for me was when (be patient…I'm foggy on this) Chet was shot in a parking lot and tossed in a car trunk. I may have this all wrong, but it's what I remember at the moment. Still have to continue the re-read.
Anyway, very scary. I recall getting Kleenex for that chapter…nerves.
…ivy