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Thought this was extremely interesting. I was reading The long lost journal of Confederate General James Johnston Pettigrew by Daniel F Bauer. This particular section stuck in my mind. What do you think?
General Pettigrew had just finished his tour of Fort Fisher North Carolina, when he started talking to some of the soldiers at the Fort.
"I am afraid this place is going to be very unhealthy this summer," one soldier told me. Another said, "The rats get into the cistern in such quantities that the water tastes and smells very strong of the little devils which every body knows is far from being pleasant."
The scheme for tor the extermination of the rats originated with a sergeant of one the gun crews. The homes of the rats were first to be flooded and then, as they sought safety in flight, they were to be clubbed to death. Under the supervision of the sergeant, some twenty men volunteered to carry water in kettles from the ocean to the rat holes. It was a weary job; the ocean was fifty yards distant and gallon after gallon was emptied into the holes and all to no pupose.
Finally, as the water bearers were losing heart and roughly berating the sergeant for conceiving such a ludicrous plan, a single rat presented himself and quickly fell before the unerring club of the man who stood nearest. The spirits of the exterminators revived.
"More water! More water!" was the cry. More rats, more rats was the response. they came thick and fast, literally hordes of rats were abandoning their holes. Reinforcements were called for and, before the fray was over, one hundred men were engaged in battle.
As the rats continued to dart from the holes, the blows were laid on hard and the battlefield was soon strewn with hundreds of the foul pests. The affair was completly successful. The enemy rountes and wholly exterminated, never to reappear. Those of little faith who mocked the originator of the plan now accorded him his just deserts and were eternally grateful.
:wink_smil
General Pettigrew had just finished his tour of Fort Fisher North Carolina, when he started talking to some of the soldiers at the Fort.
"I am afraid this place is going to be very unhealthy this summer," one soldier told me. Another said, "The rats get into the cistern in such quantities that the water tastes and smells very strong of the little devils which every body knows is far from being pleasant."
The scheme for tor the extermination of the rats originated with a sergeant of one the gun crews. The homes of the rats were first to be flooded and then, as they sought safety in flight, they were to be clubbed to death. Under the supervision of the sergeant, some twenty men volunteered to carry water in kettles from the ocean to the rat holes. It was a weary job; the ocean was fifty yards distant and gallon after gallon was emptied into the holes and all to no pupose.
Finally, as the water bearers were losing heart and roughly berating the sergeant for conceiving such a ludicrous plan, a single rat presented himself and quickly fell before the unerring club of the man who stood nearest. The spirits of the exterminators revived.
"More water! More water!" was the cry. More rats, more rats was the response. they came thick and fast, literally hordes of rats were abandoning their holes. Reinforcements were called for and, before the fray was over, one hundred men were engaged in battle.
As the rats continued to dart from the holes, the blows were laid on hard and the battlefield was soon strewn with hundreds of the foul pests. The affair was completly successful. The enemy rountes and wholly exterminated, never to reappear. Those of little faith who mocked the originator of the plan now accorded him his just deserts and were eternally grateful.
:wink_smil
Some guy in NYC got arrested for just such a thing a few years back.
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