# Civil War Mythology \[pigs eating battlefield dead\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 12, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015 "2009-12-12T19:52:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/21 "2009-12-14T07:57:07Z")
Hogs eating corpses is an upset of the normal order, in which humans are in control of pigs. I think this is a big reason that people find it creepier than corpses being eaten by wild animals. When war dead are eaten by escaped farm animals it can cause people to lose faith in their view of their place in the world. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/22 "2009-12-14T09:40:55Z")
> [@T.Slothrop](#): > > Fish and chips in Australia are shark meat. (well, the chips are actually potato). I have been told by a single Australian that they consider it just “getting back their own.” While much of the fish sold for fish and chips in Australia/New Zealand is shark, it really isn’t going to be man-eating shark (great white, mako etc). _[Flake](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flake_%28fish%29)_ is from any one of a number of small sharks, it tastes really good and the big advantage of shark is that there are no bones. Man, I miss me some real fish and chips here in the UK. Cod just does not cut it. Hoki is better, but I want some shark. Si ---
**Author:** ![manila](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e5b9ba/32.png) [@manila](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manila)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/23 "2009-12-14T11:10:29Z")
Slight hijack but it seems a route for gangsters also to dispose of victims remains. > **[The Times & The Sunday Times](https://www.thetimes.co.uk/)** > > News and opinion from The Times & The Sunday Times ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/24 "2009-12-14T13:46:29Z")
It is rumored that mafia also dispose of bodies in the Chesapeake Bay, where the crabs get their fill of them. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/25 "2009-12-14T14:40:40Z")
Anecdotal but we returned yesterday to the site where two weeks prior a 300 lb. feral hog had been killed. It’s in the middle of a deer lease, a place called “hog central” and was shot since they destroy the feeders, fences, roads, etc. It was quite apparent hogs had worked the area, freshly tracks and rootings extended for a hundred yards in every direction, but the very large corpse left there was completely cannibalized, hide, hair, bones, they ate it all. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/26 "2009-12-15T04:12:28Z")
There is a pretty famous photo taken on the Gettysburg battlefield two or three days after the fighting ended and the contenting armies had moved off. The photo shows a soldier’s corpse with a hand severed and the belly gone. The photo was originally captioned as showing the effect of artillery fire but one scholar, William A. Frassnito, Gettysburg, A Journey in Time, Thomas Publications, 1996, thinks the image is of a casualty that was worked over by pigs. The thinking is that the gaping wound in the midsection is too clean to have been made by an explosion or flying fragments but that the local farmers turned their pigs out in the woods to “root, hog, or die” and the evisceration is consistent with predation of soft tissue. ---
**Author:** ![Sodalite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@Sodalite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sodalite)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/27 "2009-12-15T06:40:10Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Well, not as far as land animals go, at least, since we generally don’t eat mammals or birds that are predators or scavengers. > > But lobsters, crabs, and eels, for example, will willingly scavenge corpses, and in turn are eaten by people. No, the direct connection isn’t common enough to produce an “established cultural response”, as you note, but the idea made it into the [Ingoldsby Legends](http://www.exclassics.com/ingold/ing54.htm): I did think of that a while after I posted. I remembered it’s part of the reason certain religions see pigs and some marine life as unclean. Thinking it over has gotten me curious. Do the people of those religions have a set response to accidentally eating one of the forbidden foods? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/28 "2009-12-15T07:27:22Z")
> [@Sodalite](#): > > Do the people of those religions have a set response to accidentally eating one of the forbidden foods? I think there are specific prayers for that but I also seem to recall that if you did it unknowingly, it doesn’t go on your spiritual “rap sheet”, as it were. The prayers of contrition are largely to make yourself feel reconciled to the sin that you innocently and accidentally committed. ---
**Author:** ![Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Boulter\_s\_Canary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boulter_s_Canary)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/29 "2009-12-15T19:57:18Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > But lobsters, crabs, and eels, for example, will willingly scavenge corpses, and in turn are eaten by people. No, the direct connection isn’t common enough to produce an “established cultural response”, as you note, but the idea made it into the [Ingoldsby Legends](http://www.exclassics.com/ingold/ing54.htm): On certain parts of the British coast, fishermen would not take crabs for some time after a big shipwreck because of the implied cannibalism. ---
**Author:** ![rainy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rainy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rainy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2009, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/30 "2009-12-15T21:24:34Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I had always thought of hogs as grain eaters. That’s what farmers feed them. But, once they go feral they become scavengers eating meat and just about anything else. I saw a documentary recently about hogs. Hogs can go feral within a few days, become aggressive, and extremely dangerous. I can attest to the grisly fate of a domestic rooster that was overly aggressive when it was smacked down after attempting to flog a child and tossed into the “domestic” hog lot. The rooster was slightly dazed and didn’t get up quick enough – it didn’t last long. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/31 "2009-12-16T14:32:33Z")
No one on this board watches UK gangster films? From Snatch: Proper Body Disposal (fed to pigs) [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/u3qy4Zv4snI/hqdefault.jpg "Proper Body Disposal (using pigs)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3qy4Zv4snI) ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/32 "2009-12-16T16:05:24Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > No one on this board watches UK gangster films? From Snatch: > > Proper Body Disposal (fed to pigs) > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3qy4Zv4snI](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3qy4Zv4snI) We went through that out here several years ago. Farmer’s wife carrying on with the hired man. Farmer disappears. Rumor that the body was run through the hammer mill and fed to the hogs. Seemed credible since running corn though the mill would have cleaned it and the pigs wouldn’t balk at eating bloody millings. As it turned out, however, wife and hired man had buried him under the gravel floor of the machine shed. All farm kids are warned never to go into the pig lot or a pig confinement alone. Pigs, especially a herd of pigs, are as dangerous as domestic animals get, dairy bulls not excepted. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/33 "2009-12-16T16:31:17Z")
Human remains of the 1927 Mississippi flood were eaten by hogs. Arkansas Confederate general Albert Pike has a statue in Washington, D.C. although I don’t believe it is due to his military success. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/34 "2009-12-16T16:48:46Z")
IIRC, there is mention of a hog eating a baby in _The Grapes of Wrath_. I don’t remember exactly where in the book the reference is and I know the book is a work of fiction. Still, I’m fairly sure the reference wouldn’t be there unless Steinbeck had some knowledge of hogs. My hometown existed primarily to service the farming community. Nearly everyone in town kept chickens and more than a few people raised hogs for the meat, including our next door neighbor. It was strongly imprinted on me to never, no matter what, go into a pig pen. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/35 "2009-12-16T18:51:23Z")
> [@Spavined\_Gelding](#): > > All farm kids are warned never to go into the pig lot or a pig confinement alone. Pigs, especially a herd of pigs, are as dangerous as domestic animals get, dairy bulls not excepted. This is exactly what I was going to say. As far as the hogs are concerned you don’t even have to be dead, or for that matter the hogs don’t need to be feral. If you’re small and/or slow enough you look like food. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/36 "2009-12-16T19:11:29Z")
> [@Spavined\_Gelding](#): > > All farm kids are warned never to go into the pig lot or a pig confinement alone. My parents never warned me. Thanks a lot, Mom and Dad! Then again, our hogs were pretty docile, and they had a nice roomy barnyard to roam around in. (So no claustrophobic aggressiveness. Hogs can get really aggressive in confined spaces.) The one warning we got was to never pick up a piglet. The piglet would start squealing, and that would bring mama sow to you in a fury. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/37 "2009-12-16T20:43:09Z")
Robert Pickton was a serial murderer who owned a Vancouver, BC-area pig farm where he hosted pig-roasts for bikers. He’d bring prostitutes up from the city, lured by the prospect of making money at the parties, but they’d never return. Speculation is that he fed them to the pigs, which he then fed to the bikers. (I’m sure there have been vegan bikers, but this story makes it all the more possible) Re the OP about battlefied scavengers, the site of a major battle between the Turks and the Serbs in 1389 was Kosvo Polje, which means “Field of Blackbirds.” My college history professor taught that it was named after the battle, but I can Google no hard proof. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2009, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/38 "2009-12-16T22:05:31Z")
> [@chacoguy](#): > > I have a friend that witnessed this phenomenon, personally in Vietnam. As did my father. I can’t elaborate because this is the one episode of his wartime experience that he refuses to talk about. ---
**Author:** ![madrabbitwoman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@madrabbitwoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madrabbitwoman)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/39 "2009-12-17T07:32:15Z")
There are some local and recentish (within my lifetime) stories of folks gettin eaten buy feral pigs (SW NSW Australia). One is about a drunk bikie - decided to have a nap in the side of the road and lost most of his head and his hands (somewhere between Moulamein and Balranald in the 70s). Could be an urban legend but there are some mighy big feral pigs out that way… Australia did produce this though: [http://www.tabula-rasa.info/AusHorror/Razorback.html](http://www.tabula-rasa.info/AusHorror/Razorback.html) ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2009, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015/40 "2009-12-17T14:12:43Z")
You learn something new everyday. I thought that pigs/hogs ate only veggies, but if they were in a pinch they would turn to meat… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/civil-war-mythology-pigs-eating-battlefield-dead/521015.md?page=3)