>> during the civil war, animals served in a variety of roles from transporting supplies to acting as regimental mascots. next, brad stone talks about general leads hen, jeff davis, the marching pig, -- and dug at the camel. the national museum of civil war medicine hosted this program, they provided the video. >> hi there, i am brad a stone with the national museum of civil war medicine. and i'm here today to talk about the role that animals play during the civil war.

they affected nearly every major aspect of the war. and i'm really fortunate to be doing it today at this wonderful farm, south mountain creamery, and in middle town maryland. the farm is historic and it is surrounded by a number of really important historic civil war sites in this area. if you go a couple of miles to the east, in the historic, frederik, you will see the national museum of civil war medicine, which is an excellent place to go if you would like to have a fun way of learning about how medical dances made in the civil war impact us and in beneficial ways even today either by that is the battlefield at -- an important battle of the civil war. now, if you go get west from this farm, you will see the battlefield of antietam one of the most battles -- and then not far beyond that is

harbors fairy. another prime historic site in the united states. so, all of this is in this area if you are visiting these places, the farm here at south mountain creamery is a great place to stop by. you have great dairy, and other food products here, that you can enjoy or bring home. so i -- we are very fortunate to have the owner of south mountain creamery, tony brass go, and tony, would you like to tell us a little bit about the history of this farm, and what people can see and they experience when they come? here >> sure. so, south mountain creamery is part of a family farm operation, i'm part of the second generation that now owns the operation with my wife, abby. her brother been, and his wife kate. the four of us own about the farm operation as well as southbound creamery which is marilyn's first on the farm grade a milk plant. so, here on the farm we process

our own milk from our own cows, we bottle it, make yogurt, ice creams, have lots of other dairy products in the story as well as meets and eggs and things that we produce here on the farm. and folks can come out, they can try some of these farm fresh goods, they can actually visit with our cows and our calfs. at certain times of the year, we open up the calf farm for folks to help bottle feed the baby cows. and yeah. so, it is a good family fun operation. something that our family is pretty proud of, that we work our debt. >> yeah, it's a great farm. and, tony, we were talking a little bit before about the fact that this farm is on historic land. correct? >> that is absolutely correct. this field right here is i believe part of the civil war easement. so, it is preserved, it will never be developed. and this is actually our home place. so, our family has been farming here for literally, since 1981,

so that is, what 80 years? something like that? >> right. >> so, we are pretty happy with it. >> now, this farm is part of the area in which the battle of south mountain took place. it is an important battle of the civil war. it's the first battle in which major union and confederate forces after robert e. lee invades maryland in september of 1862. now, the battle of south mountain will have a number of famous historic figures in it including two future u.s. presidents, robert b hayes, and william mckinley, who will both be fighting for the union. now the battle will set up the battle of antietam a few days later which is one of the pivotal battles of the civil war, and which remains the bloodiest day in u.s. history. but again, i am really happy to be doing this presentation here on this farm with these fine

animals behind us, because my top will focus in on how animals in farms like this, and others really played a critical part in almost every major aspect of the civil war. when we talk about the animals in the civil war, they perform a number of important functions. i will talk about today. one is, as a source of food. another as a source of important materials that are needed during the war. , there is also very important way of transporting goods during the civil war. and finally, they are mascots, and mascots play an important role in boosting amends morale when they are in the field. now, i'm going to start out about talking about animals and the important role they played as a sort of food.

on a farm, as you can see, these beef cattle behind us. and animals were the major sources of protein and other important things like calcium, and, sort of basic staples that allowed the armies to survive. as napoleon once said, an army, you know, movies -- marches on its stomach. and an army cannot exist unless they are adequately fed. and that is what's farms like this did. a lot of people have the conception that when the civil war started, the confederacy was an agricultural powerhouse. whereas the north was largely just an industrial powerhouse. now, it is true that the confederacy has a lot of al grew cultural capacity. there are places like the shenandoah valley, they are serving as bread baskets to the

confederate armies for much of the war. but the truth is that the union is not only an industrial powerhouse, it's also an agricultural powerhouse as well. indeed, by the time of the civil war, the union in many ways is out producing the confederacy. both in terms of agricultural crops and in livestock. why? well, first of all, the union, the north, is larger. it has more of these farms all over its territory. but the other thing is that the union, the north, is by the time of the civil war, taking a much more effective, advanced approach to agriculture than the south. the south still depends largely on manual labor. and much of that, unfortunately, falls on enslaved people. the north, however, is using new agricultural practices including much more

mechanization. and they are able to produce more off of the same acreage. so, by the time of the civil war, you have a north that is both an agricultural and industrial colossus. and they're able to combine those two strengths to accomplish things that are very beneficial to the north during the civil war. including surmounting one of the biggest challenges that both sides faced. how do you get agricultural products like meat, milk, or eggs, from farms like these to the front lines without those goods becoming spoiled? you got to remember the during the civil war, they don't have the types of refrigeration or freezing procedures we do today. so, how do you get those kinds of foodstuffs to the front line? well, the major way at that time was through canning.

canning had been developed during the napoleon explores, as an experimental way. but by the time of the civil war, particularly in the north, the industry had the wherewithal to make massive quantities of canned foods, and as the war goes on, the north's capacity to produce great quantities of this canned food, not only increased, but they are also able to increase the diversity of products. everything from beef, vegetables, fruit, even some seafood's. but perhaps one of the most crucial things the north is able to provide is this. this is condensed milk. now, we think of condensed milk today mainly as something we used in recipes, but during the civil war, this is one of the most favorite things that a union soldier could find in his field ration. this was developed by the board

and company in the 18 fifties, but as the war goes on, the union will put an increasing orders for this product. why? because it was usually the thing that many northern soldiers preferred to drink from. just straight out of the can. it's a great drinking source for them, far better than any of the polluted water sources near their camps or battlefield. you drink this, you know it is pure. but beyond that, it has other great features. it's an excellent source of nutrition. it provides calcium, it provides protein, it contains about 1300 calories from this one container, which is something you really need as a soldier on the march or in a battle. the other great thing about it is that it's small and easy to take with you. in addition to being a great

source of nutrition, it's also sweetened. so, it contains sugar, and it gives you a kind of a boost when you drink it. so, in some ways it is even an early form of energy drink. so, union soldiers really value this. and confederate soldiers did to when they were able to capture it off of captured union supply wagons. but the problem with the confederacy is, that's the only way they can get this, or many other canned foods. the confessedly -- confederacy didn't have the industry, nor the infrastructure to provide canned foods of this type. and the fact that the confederacy didn't have this kind of supply other canned foods meant that they weren't able to consistently supply their armies with the food they needed. the confederate army had increasing problems supplying their armies as the war went. on particularly, as confederate

farmlands, livestock, and other things, were either captured or destroyed by union troops. so, that in turn caused conditions of near starvation or actual starvation among many southern armies. the fact that the confederate armies could not get the food supplies they needed was a major factor in the desertion rates that were starting to occur in those armies, particularly toward the end of the war. indeed, it might be said that the unions ability to merge its agricultural might and supply its armies as opposed to the confederate failure to do so was one of the major decisive factors in the outcome of the war. we talked about food, animals also played immensely important roles and supplying the primary materials needed

during the war. to start out with, will. wool comes from sheep, and wool was used during many things in the civil war including uniforms. the uniform i'm wearing today was made out of wool. most uniforms worn by both sides were from wool. will was used in other things like blanket, gloves. now, here again, union was able to couple its industrial might, it's agricultural might to dramatically outproduce the confederacy in terms of wool and goods. in fact, the union produced 17 times more wool and cotton textiles than the confederacy over the course of the war. now, another basic material needed during the war was leather. and that comes from animal hides. that was used for all sorts of things during the civil war.

my belt is made out of leather, my holsters made out of leather, my cat box is made out of leather. things like saddles, regimes, all sorts of critical things were made out of leather. but perhaps most important, my boots are made out of leather. boots and shoes where virtually all made out of leather during the civil war. you could not put shoes on your armies unless you used leather.s once more, the union was able to use its agricultural and and industrial might to far outpaced the confederacy. in fact, the union during the course of a civil war produced 30 times more leather goods than the confederacy. now, another important thing that the army did was to see at night. the civil war was fought before the advent of electricity. so to see at night you had to largely depend on candles or lanterns. candles

virtually all made from animal by products. there was tallow, they were made from animal fat. there was also, if you want a higher quality candle, bees wax, which is a byproduct of bees. but the most popular candle at the time of the civil war was made of something called spermicelli which came from wales. spermaceti. and speaking of wales, of used a lamp chances are that would contain whale oil. the north has an advantage. the north had a long established whaling fleet which went around the world and harvested wales. now since i'm

with the national museum of civil war medicine, i have to mention that animals also provided some essential medical supplies. perhaps the most famous would be sutures. sutures are what you used to stitch up wounds. now the most famous suture of the civil war was this. this is silk thread which comes from silkworms. silk thread is an excellent material to suture wounds. it's so good in fact in that it is still used today. but the confederacy had a problem with silk thread and that is at the time of the civil war it had to be imported from the far east. that's no problem for the north but it's a big problem for the south because of the union naval blockade. by the time of the civil wars midpoint, the confederacy is running out of silk thread. they have to come up with a substitute. so eventually they do, and they decide to use this instead.

this is horsehair. now horse hair doesn't look look like it would may make a great suture, but this here's a back story. a civil war is the last made major war because the study of germ theory, that germs cause disease. what that meant is that when surgeons did operations during the civil war, very often they didn't wash their hands, they didn't wash their equipment, they didn't make sure that anything was germ free. and that includes their suture material. so very often when surgeons were stitching people up with thread, very often that suture material could be contaminated and could in fact infect the patient. now the confederate surgeons were thinking about using horsehair they realized there was a problem, horsehair is to stiff

law, not pliable enough to tie into a good knot. so they have to figure out a good way to make it softer, more pliable or easily tied and they come up with a solution. they boil it, and by boiling, it it makes it softer, more pliable, but it also does something else they don't realize. it's sterilizes it. it kills off all the germs. what they will later find out is that the confederate surgeons who used to boil horsehair for sutures, and it up having far fewer infections among their patients than surgeons using the silk sutures. so just to keep your mind at ease, i mentioned before that silk sutures are used today. they are, but today since we know about germ theory, they are sterilized in their

perfectly safe. i do want to mention that these horsehair sutures are also used today in some surgical procedures. so as you can see, animal supplied a lot of the basic materials that both armies depended on. now we talked about food, and we talked about these important materials. the other question is, how did all these other supplies get to the front lines? it is true that during the civil war, trains are being used in a major way as never before to supply all sorts of things. but still, the main burden of supplying forces in the field during the civil war will fall on animals, and mainly what we call equines, horses and mules. these animals play an important incredibly important part in making sure the armies run. i mean he's two

examples, small one and then at a larger one. the small one is a union artillery battery. that consists of just six cannons. in order to transport those cannons, the men and all the materials for their operation into battle, that will require 72 horses. now a larger example. i'll talk about sherman's march to the sea. that's known as kind of a barebones operation, it didn't have a large supply train. historians talk about the fact that it was basically performed by men foraging supplies they needed from farms, plantations as they went on the march. well, even that barebones operation took a tremendous number of equine's. a required over 36,000 mules and 32,000 horses to transport the materials needed for that campaign. i'm

talking about supply wagons, artillery and ambulances, and then when you factor in other animals used in that campaign, other equal, horses in cavalry, horses for officers. when you combine all of that, it's about 72,000 equine. so, to focus in on horrendous courses for a second, most people when they think of horses during the civil war, they think about the use in the cavalry. cavalry is an important offensive weapon during the civil war, both sides use it, to project force against their enemy, very often and quickly by surprise. there's some epic cavalry battles during the civil war, like those fought during the battle of gettysburg. the largest cavalry battle of during the civil war will be at brandy station. that will involve over 18,500 horsemen. it remains the largest cavalry

battle ever fought on the north american continent. but as important as the cavalry was, but often goes overlooked is the cavalry played a critical intelligence gathering role during the civil war. this is the time you don't have spies satellites, by planes, electronic means of eavesdropping on your enemy, so commanders during the civil war would very often depend heavily on dispatching their cavalry to find out what was going on behind enemy lines. they would send their cavalry to probe, find out what kind of troop movements were going on amongst the enemy, what's their strengths and weaknesses were,

then these cavalry units would come back to the commanders, report on what they had seen, and that was a for civil war commanders to try to gauge what to do in terms of the enemy. both in terms of tactics and strategy. now, one of the unsung heroes of the civil war was the mule. what is a mule? well, the mule is the hybrid when you breed a male donkey and a female horse. what you get in my opinion is a remarkable animal. although they are primarily known as pack animals, animals that can carry supplies, you can also ride them. i have in many cases, and i think they're just as good as a horse. but a mule has some added features. it is a very sure footed animal, it can often operate in terrain and under conditions that horse

don't do as well and. it can carry a lot of material. they were the mainstay of many a supply line during the civil war. even after the civil war, our army has depended heavily on mules in many situations. so much so that that's why the mascot of the u.s. military academy at west point as a mule. now because of both armies tendency to equine's, as the war went on a made more and more of an effort to take care of these animals, particularly the union. the union and the confederacy took a much different approach with regards to these animals. the union took a more centralized approach. they would purchase these animals for their armies, whereas in the confederacy, it was the soldier who would have to procure their own horse or mule very often. don't that

also meant that the union took a much more centralized approach for the care these animals and by 1863 the union has developed event in eric or or they have an area officers for cavalrymen's to make sure that the needs of these animals are being looked after and taken care of. now again, the confederacy took a very decentralized approach with regards to the care of the animals. that largely fell to the individual soldier. as the war goes on, the confederacy has a tougher and tougher time meeting the needs of its animals, particularly with things with like adequate food. despite the best efforts of both sides during the civil war, the war takes a terrible toll on equine's. it's estimated that about 1. 2 million equines died during the civil war. it's a very sobering statistic, it's just another insight into the devastation of this war. now i'm gonna talk about mascots. mascots play a key function during the civil war in terms

of helping to keep up morale, instill the fighting spirit in men. i want to talk about two types of mascot. one tackle functional mascots and the other are just pure mascots. functional mascots are animals that put into service that overtime develop more to be considered as mascots. and perhaps the best example are goats in the navy. got to be on navy ships for a long time, and since the inception of the united states navy, they were there also during the civil war. why? goats are great sources of food, particularly milk, which he can turn into butter or cheese. now you might say why not is a cow? gets a

lot smaller, it can fit a lot easier aboard a ship. they are also very surefooted, they don't fall on the deck and roll around. they also don't get seasick. unlike many sailors, goats are actually excellent swimmers. the other thing about goats is their upkeep is very easy. you can feed them garbage and they will do just fine. so for all these reasons, goats are really treasured aboard navy ships for a long, long time. now by the time of the civil war, the union navy in particular is establishing ways of supplying their ships with nutritious foods. so the need for live animals aboard ships is starting to diminish. but goats will remain on navy ships long after they are needed for their use as a source of food. in fact, they will stay on navy ships as mascots well into the 20th century. and that's why the goat is the official mascot of the u.s. naval academy. now

another set of functional animals are cats and small dogs that were used aboard ships as what would be called ratters. they will go after rats, mice and other vermin. they were very effective a tracking them down. they can get into small hard-to-reach places, and prevent them from doing damage, to ropelines, canvas and of course the food supply aboard the ship. they were very valued. now, one of the more famous cats was a blackout that served aboard the union ship the monitor that was involved in the epic battle. the monitor a few months after that sank off the coast of north carolina, and there was a story that the black cat that was aboard that

ship either had jumped into a gun barrel and went down with the ship or jumped onto a rescue ship and was saved that case never got solved into a few years ago when the ship was raised and brought into restoration a few months ago, work started on the gun barrel of the ship. and the question was, will the skeletal remains of that can be found inside the gun barrel? i'm happy to report, they were not. so it was likely that the cat lived to fight another day. but, the role of cats and dogs aboard the ships would continue long after the age of sale. and again, well into the 20th century, you had dogs and cats aboard navy ships serving as mascots. now, two of the most famous functional mascots were almost iconic. they were the horse of robert e. lee and the horse of ulysses

s. grant. so these course lee's horse was a magnificent american quarter horse. he is much loved by the men. after the war, when li lee left to assume the presidency of what's well known as washington lead college, he took traveler with him. when they both died, traveler was eventually buried on the campus, not far from when the lee family was also buried. so general grant's horse was cincinnati, and he was a descendant of some of the greatest race horses in america at the time. he was a renowned for his courage and battle and he was admired by people like abraham lincoln, who wanted to ride him every time he visited grant in the field. cincinnati is the horse that's depicted in almost every statue where grant is mounted on horseback.

including the statue that lies in front of our capital building in washington d. c.. now, i'm going to talk about mascots that were pretty much just animals that were appreciated for their companionship. and they have played a very important function again in boosting morale. lots of the men were far from home, and we love our parents and they appreciate having animals that can provide companionship and in some instances, inspired them. so, one animal, i'll start out with is sally the hen. sally belonged to robert e. lee. she escaped from a shipment of poultry that was being sent to the confederate army in 1862 and fortunately for her, she ran into lee's tent. they hit it off and almost every day thereafter, she would lay in

egg under lee's bed. this relationship went on until unfortunately, the bell of the wilderness when there was a misunderstanding and nellie, unfortunately, ended up on the menu. lee was very upset about that. there were other animals are used as mascots as well. one of the most popular were dogs. dog's a man's best friend, although here he might challenge that. thomas roth very often uses mascots for regiments. one of the most famous gods was sally the dog. sally was the mascot of the pennsylvania 11th infantry, and she went everywhere with them. she paraded with them, including in front of president lincoln. she went into battle with them. she fought with them at the battle of gettysburg and there she went missing for a number of days. when they found her, she was guarding the bodies of the dead and wounded comrades. she continued to

fight with them until she died in a battle in 1864. they risked their lives to save her, to bring her body back to be buried with proper military honors. but they immortalized her in 1890 when they built a monument on the battlefield of gettysburg. and there at the base of that monument is a life size bronze sculpture of sally. it's a very touching tribute to the sacrifices made by dogs during the civil war. now, other now, other domestic animals were used as mascots. one of the more famous was thick the sheep. dick was a mascot of the second rhode island regiment. and dick could do all sorts of tricks and he traveled extensively with the

unit. unfortunately when they were deployed in washington d. c., they found out that there had been no provision for the food they needed it was a very sad fate when unfortunately most mascots been suffer that. another mascot that had a happier fate was jeff davis the pig. that was adopted by kinetic kit regiment. he was named after jefferson davis, the president of the care and federal sea. it was not meant as a compliment for jefferson davis to be compared to a pig. but, jeff they risk the pig was very popular among the troops and he could do a number of things. he could march with him on his hind legs, he could smoke a pipe, he can run obstacle courses and he served with them extensively, including when they did occupation duty on the newly captured city of new orleans. but when it came time for them to go into combat, they made

the very humane decision to send jeff davis back to a farm in new haven, connecticut so he could live out the rest of his days in peace. another animal that had a similar fortunate fate was bruin the bear. he belonged to the 12th wisconsin infantry. and he was a tame bear, he would march with them, he would board trains with them and he went with him on extensive series of assignments. they ended up in fort levinworth, kansas and then they got an order that they would have to take a grueling and dangerous march to texas. again, they made a humane decision to leave him with an arrangement in fort

levinworth in kansas, where he could live out the remainder of his days in peace. now, i'm commenting that very often happened is that units would adopt a mascot was also the official state mascot. and that's what happened with the 26th wisconsin infantry. they had a badger as their mascot. why a badger? well, the time in wisconsin was known for its minors. and what's better animal to symbolize minors and then a badger. they can burrow deeply and their fears and tenacious fighters. and they thought that by picking a badger as their mascot, that would inspire the troops to be fierce and tenacious as well. now, a more unusual mascot was doug the camel. doug belonged to the confederate unit of the 43rd mississippi. and doug represents a little known fact about the u.s. military. that is, in the years leading up to the civil war, as america was

expanding ever westward, they were facing increasing problems as to how to supply their far flung other forts and settlements. these were over vast distances and tough terrain. stuff that even a horses and mules had difficulty with. so that then secretary of war, a guy by the name of jefferson davis, and yes it's it's the same jefferson davis that just a few years later would be the president of the confederacy, came up with the idea of importing camels from the middle east to see if they could be used to supply these far flung forts and settlements. it was called the texas experiment. the idea was there create an american camel corps. the experiment had its problems. although those were well trained and experience with camels found them to be great animals to work with, others who were less trained and less experienced had difficulties with them. now, these problems along with the beginning of the civil war

caused an end to the program. and unfortunately, most of these camels were just set loose to fend for themselves. now, it is reported that some of the offspring from these camels that we just set loose, were still seen roaming the southwest. up until the 1940s. a few of the camels were still used by forces in the north and the south and doug was the most famous. again, he was the mascot of the 43rd mississippi infantry and who was used to transport some supplements. but it was really a mascot. unfortunately, he was a rather big target and he was killed by union sharpshooters at vicksburg. the men felt terrible about it, they buried him with full military honors and there still remains a monument in honor of dug and the services he provided to the

unit. perhaps the most famous mascot of all was old abe. an american bald eagle, you can't get much more american than that. he was bought from an indian tribe by the wisconsin eighth infantry and he was a renowned for his courage. he was named after president lincoln as a token of esteem for president lincoln. and he followed the unit everywhere, including into battle. and he was known for when a battle was raging, flying up above and giving out a warlike scream that would inspire the men. now, old abe was shot twice during the war but survived and return to as a hero. not only wisconsin, but throughout the north. and he was given the honor of living out the rest of his days in the wisconsin state capital. and he died in the

1880's but his life because he lived far beyond that because in the 20th century, when the u.s. army decided to create an airborne division, they took the likeness of abe and used it as the insignia for that division, which today is known as the 101st airborne division which is also known as the screaming eagles. in honor of old abe. now, i talked a lot about all the ways that animals were used during the civil war. but i'd like to conclude with one that doesn't really get that much attention but it is kind of a fascinating thing to think about. elephants. they could've been used in the civil war, but were not. but some historians think they should have been. now, what's ironic about this is the term for going into battle during the civil war was going to see the elephant. but of course, there were no elephants during the civil war. there could've been however, had president lincoln taken up the kind offer made by

the king of siam. siam is whyat we call thailand today. the king of thailand hired offered link in the use of elephants to show his support for the union cause. now, lincoln didn't think much of the idea and he politely declined. but some people think he was to ration doing that. elephants had been used for centuries by armies. they're an excellent way of transporting supplies, they're massive animals, they can carry a lot of supplies and they can do it often over difficult terrain and under conditions that horses and mules might not be able to. but they are also a very effective offensive weapon. they're enormous animals, they have massive tusks and seeing them charge on you is very intimidating. the other thing is, their skin is very thick and made them impervious to a lot of weapons. it's believed that a lot of the

sidearms or small weapons used during the civil war probably would not have penetrated their skin, particularly if those elements were outfitted with armor, which again, is something that elephants had been equipped with for centuries by armies. now by the time of the civil war, armies like those in siam and other places would usually have men atop these elephants with rifles or rapid fire weapons or even small artillery, which kind of made these elephants like an early form of tank. so some people think that had the union army been equipped with these armored elephant units, they might have had devastating impacts on the confederate army. indeed, one military historian recently wrote in the publication, the national interest, a very interesting story with the scenario of having an armored elephant unit of the type i described at

gettysburg. and what would have happened, had an armored elephant unit had been deployed at gettysburg his belief is, it would've crushed lee's army to the point that they would've had to surrender, to the point that the war may have been shortened by two years. now with this have happened? we'll never know. but it's a fascinating thing to think about. we're concluding this presentation on animals in the civil war here at the monarchy battlefield and i'm joined here by my two mascot friends, lzzy and wendy. and this is an important battle, as i mentioned before, it's the battle that actually saved washington d. c. in 1864. i'm here, right next to a cavalry flag and both sides had cavalry deployed here at this battle. i'm going to talk about another

cavalry action that doesn't get much attention but i think makes for a good final story and that is, the charge of the mule brigade. it occurred in october of 1863 at the battle of the wahache. it's on the border of georgia and tennessee. one night, 200 union mules were tethered together when nearby gunfire started spoiling around them. it shocked them to the point where they broke loose there tethers and stampeded. fortunately for the union, they stampeded in the direction of the confederate forces under wade hampton. these confederate forces saw what they thought were horses charging them. they thought it was a union cavalry charge. they panicked and

ultimately they retreated. now some historians dispute how much of that stampede cause the eventual defeat of the confederates, but it did play a factor. the story goes that the following day when ulysses s. grant was informed of this accidental victory by the mule stampede, he said he was going to promote the mules two horses on. so in conclusion, i hope i have done a good job at giving you an overview at the many ways animals played a big war and role in the civil war, whether be as a food supply, as a source of raw materials, as a way of transporting goods and as mascots as you can see. continue to make big contributions toanimals continue to make big contributions to our military. everything from horses to mules during afghanistan, as noted in the film 12 strong. we still use dogs of course to help

protect our soldiers and sniff out bombs. we used these to help detect explosives and we venues animal such as dolphins and seals to help protect our coastal defenses and four other military uses. so animals have made throughout american history a tremendous contribution to our armed forces. they continue to do so and they probably will in the foreseeable future. so thank you very much for watching this. i encourage you to go to the national museum of civil war medicine which is also in frederick, maryland. better yet, get a membership to it so you can really enjoy all that has to offer. once again, thank you very, very much. 1863 met

next on american history tv, the national museum of civil war medicine host an online discussion with john heckman known as the tattooed historian about civil war soldiers nutrition and and hygiene, he discusses what food would be in the rations. the national museum of civil war museum provided this video. >> thank you all for tuning in with us we are here with the tattooed historian john