The Pig, The Reb, & Gen. Lee at the Battle of Sharpsburg

You may have heard Gen. R. E. Lee’s chicken story, but have you heard about the pig, the Reb, and Gen. Lee at the Battle of Sharpsburg/Antietam, September 17, 1862?[1] It’s a much different vignette than the chicken one, although with a bit of the same ending in some respects. The story was told by Maj. A. L. Long, one of Lee’s staff officers.[2]

During the battle, Lee rode somewhere in the rear waiting for reports from the front. His mind raced as he listened to the crescendo of cannon and rifle fire. Over in Maj. Gen. Thomas Jackson’s sector, the battle raged in the East Woods, Cornfield, and along the Hagerstown Pike.

Amidst the ever-moving scene behind the lines, the General spotted an unbelievable site. A Confederate soldier had stolen and killed a pig. He was in the process of casually preparing it to feast upon. Most assuredly, the Reb was just as surprised to see Gen. Lee staring at him.

Col. Long describes what happened next.

Positive orders having been given against pillage of every kind, this flagrant disregard of his commands threw the general into a hot passion. Though usually greatly disinclined to capital punishment, he determined to make an example of this skulking pilferer, and ordered the man to be arrested and taken back to Jackson with directions to have him shot.

A staff officer took the culprit to Jackson and gave him Lee’s order: shoot the scoundrel!

It’s at this moment in time that a rare role-reversal occurred. Jackson, our authoritarian Presbyterian, thought shooting the pig thief was a waste of manpower. (It was.) He also knew he badly needed soldiers on the front lines and realized he could kill two birds with one stone. Yep, Jackson “put the fellow in the front ranks of the army at the most threatened point [so as to] let the enemy perform the work assigned to him.”

What happen next? Here’s where the story gets really crazy. The Confederate soldier was placed where he had the best chance of being shot, but the Yankee bullets missed him! Yep, the lucky Reb lived to fight and eat another day. Col. Long tells us:

The fellow, though fond of surreptitious pork, was not wanting in courage, and behaved gallantly. He redeemed his credit by his bravery, and came through the thick of the fight unscathed. If a commonplace witticism be not out of order here, it may be said that, though he lost his pig, he ‘saved his bacon.’

The soldier is never named nor is his regiment.

There’s another piece of the story left out that I want to know. Who got to enjoy the pork meal? Long doesn’t tell us. Maybe he and the other staff officers quietly confiscated it and left that part out. What do you think . . .[3]

[1] For Lee’s chicken, see Meg Groeling’s “War Chicken” blog, https://emergingcivilwar.com/2012/02/20/war-chicken/.

[2] All quotes are taken from A. L. Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee, (1886), 222.

[3] Illustrations: There are lots of foraging drawings, but I couldn’t find any from the Maryland 1862 campaign. 1. Two foragers chasing a pig, probably Union soldiers. Confederates mastered foraging as well. It just wasn’t encouraged by Lee. Drawing found at https://www.crossroadsofwar.org/galleries/camp-life/. 2. Depicts Confederate camp life and cooking supper, found at https://www.northwindprints.com/civil-war-us/confederate-camp-dinner-civil-war-5880217.html.