[4V50 Gary]

When the intial wave of enthusiasm died out and the horrors of war became known, it became harder to get recruits and so states and counties began offering bounties to men who would enlist. While the offer of bounties did encourage enlistment, especially among the poor, it was also abused by men who sought money without ever entering into the service. Thus, after receiving their bounties, they would disappear and enlist elsewhere to collect another bounty. Here's a story of one bounty-jumper who didn't quite get away.

"The good deeds of a dog have more than once to be put in contrast with the mean tricks of the human kind, and here is an additional illustration of this truth. A man who had in charge a bounty-jumper, stopped at the Union House, Wheeling, with his prisoner. The man left his charge in the hall in order to look into an adjoining room for a person he wished to see, when the nimble jumper jumped out of the door, upon the sidewalk, ran up the street with great rapidity and darted down the alley in the rear of the Union House. A Newfoundland dog - honest patriot! - observing that the jumper was being followed, with loyal instinct joined in the pursuit. The dog soon overtook the fleeing rascal, seized him by the boot leg, and squatted down in the mud. The jumper kicked the dog off, but he had no sooner extricated himself than the faithful animal caught him again, and continued to hang on and delay the culprit until his pursuers came up and captured him."