General Lee's Chicken...!

For this episode of Western Wednesday, let's talk about battlefield pets.

General Lee had a pet chicken, believe it or not. How he came by the hen is an interesting story in and of itself. Apparently Lee was very fond of his chicken, though, and until the hen made the ultimate sacrifice Lee treated it well.

General Lee’s chicken.

In 1862, a Virginia farmer gave Robert E. Lee a flock of chickens. Confederate General John Bell Hood’s men ate all of them—except for one, who had survived by making her roost in a tree overhanging Lee’s tent. Lee took a liking to the chicken. He named her “Nellie” and raised the flap of his tent so she could come and go as she pleased. She began laying eggs nearly every day under the general’s cot. On the eve of the Battle of the Wilderness, Lee invited a group of generals to dine with him, but his slave cook, William Mack Lee, couldn’t find sufficient food to make a meal. Although he “hated to lose her,” the cook said he “picked her good, and stuffed her with bread stuffing, mixed with butter.” He said it was the only time in four years that Lee scolded him. “It made Marse Robert awful sad to think of anything being killed,” he said, “whether ’twas one of his soldiers or his little black hen.”

Sad that the pet chicken made it's way into the cook pot, but like they say...War is Hell!

Coffee out on the patio again this morning, where the temps are going back up into the 80s.