Do You Stand Up to Dogs in Combat?

By the onset of the Civil War blood hounds had grown to become the single most reliable tool of oppression in the arsenal of southern whites. One union field officers scouting through rebel lands in 1862 reported hearing the constant barking of hounds which would have been turned towards a new use searching for union infiltrators. Confederate generals also deployed blood hounds on the front line. Black union soldiers were considered fugitive slaves in arms and it was seen as only logical that these Negro dogs could be used to break their will and send them fleeing from battle. On October 23rd 1862 the battle of Pocatelligo Bridge marked the first time black soldiers came face to face with the Negro dogs of slave patrols in open combat