Flora and Fauna of the Civil War: An Environmental Reference Guide

Alligator

A l l i g ato r The name alligator is derived from the Spanish term el lagarto—the lizard —the label used by early Spanish explorers in Florida to describe the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). Alligators are found from North Carolina west to central Texas but rarely north of Arkansas and Tennessee because of their intolerance to lengthy periods of cold weather. Their required habitats include a variety of freshwater swamps, marshes, rivers, and ponds. Historically and currently, most alligators live in Louisiana and Florida. Once reduced to near extinction due to market hunting for their hides, the recovery of healthy alligator populations by wise management is an Endangered Species Act success story. The American alligator is the largest reptile in North America. Males can reach thirteen feet in length and weigh six hundred pounds. The largest alligator on record measured nineteen feet two inches and lived in the marshes of southwest Louisiana.1 Alligators are carnivorous and eat almost anything they can catch, including other alligators. A variety of insects , fish, turtles, birds, and mammals are common prey. Alligator attacks on humans are uncommon today and probably were the same during the Civil War period. Soldiers, however, did eat alligators on occasion. Prior to the Civil War alligators were harvested for their skins, which were tanned into leather, and for the oil from their fat that lubricated cotton gins and steam engines. The war increased the demand for alligator leather for boots, shoes, and saddles for Confederate troops.2 It is unlikely, however, that alligator products were important in the war except on a local basis. 115 116 Fauna Reflecting the general attitudes of the era, many Civil War participants considered alligators in the same category as bears, panthers, and wolves— vermin with no intrinsic beneficial values other than as targets for rifle practice. When mention of this species was made in their writings, this belief prevailed. Perhaps because many southerners were familiar with alligators , the species is more commonly mentioned in Union accounts, a result of its novelty. Just the sight of an alligator was worth noting in a letter or diary. Private John Westervelt, 1st New York Volunteer Engineer Corps, near the mouth of the St. Johns River, Florida, on Feb. 27, 1864: “The banks of the river are mostly low and marshy. Occasionally we saw an alligator basking his horny hide in the sun.”3 John Hay, assistant secretary to President Lincoln, near Fort Clinch, Florida, on April 25, 1863: “Tea with Col. Hawley & family. Best possible New England tea. A visit to the pet alligators. Bit in the thumb.”4 Private Theodore F. Upson, 100th Indiana Infantry Volunteers, near Goldsboro, North Carolina, on March 27, 1865: “There are a great many small alligators and once in a while quite a large one in the pond above the mill. The boys have shot several. There was one that has kept well away but has been seen at times. I got on top of the mill to day and he showed up a long shot away. I raised the sights on my rifle and was fortunate enough to kill him. When the boys got him he measured 7 feet in length. The citizens and Darkies here think I am a wonderful shot.”5 John S. Jackman, 9th Kentucky Infantry, aboard the steamboat Waverly on the Alabama River on Sept. 29, 1862: “The boys amused themselves by shooting at aligators lying out on the sand-bars and banks, sunning themselves .”6 Corporal Rufus Kinsley, 8th Vermont Regiment, near Des Allemands, Louisiana, on June 3, 1862: “We killed four alligators on the way. I tried my rifle on two of them; put a ball in the right eye of each. One of them was thirteen feet long. We ate two of them for supper. Found the flesh, when boiled, more like a chicken’s breast than any thing else.”7 Alligator 117 Surgeon’s Steward C. Marion Dodson aboard the USS Pocahontas below New Orleans on May 10, 1864: “Alligators are quite abundent. One old fellow did not seem ill at ease when, fastened to an old log, we ran quite close to him.”8 Private Galutia York, 114th New York Volunteer Infantry, in a letter to his brother on Jan. 7, 1863, from Fort Monroe, Virginia: “there was some of Co G men of 114 went out the other day and killed an alligator skinned...