William Barton, Lieutenant, 1st NJ, "Proceeded to Phillips's farm(9miles)and halted one hour. Marched again for Tunkhannack, fording a creek, one and a half miles before we arrived there, which was at four P. M. This place, as usual, is situated on the river; the few former huts destroyed; land as usual, bottom. This place very remarkable for deer, bears, turkey, several of which were taken by the troops without firing a gun, there being positive orders to the contrary; otherwise might have killed many more during our halt." [More]
he must mean the turkeys. to my knowledge this was not so of deer and bear, but wild turkey was so prevalent in north america that regardless of whether or not groups of them were afraid of humans, they could be found sauntering about one's property more or less daily. and i don't mean off in the woods a few yards, i mean in the front yard.
ReplyDeletethere is a story told of a young abe lincoln shooting a turkey through a gap in the wall of his parents' log cabin, inside to outside. whether this demonstrates that he had to hide from the turkey or it would run -- suggesting they had cultivated a fear of humans by that time -- or that he was a coward from his youth, rather than cultivating his cowardice shortly after the start of his political career, i am not sure.