From the Richmond Whig, 5/19/1865

THAT BIG BLACK DOG AGAIN. - We announced, some days since, that Hero, the famous Russian bloodhound, that the did the duty of a sleepless sentinel at Castle Thunder post, had evacuated with the Confederate Government and struck the Trans-Mississippi trail. From a personal dog paragraph in a Northern paper, we perceive that Hero has arrived in the vicinity of Washington, and was quite a hero indeed. Mr. Munn, sutler of the 140th New York regiment, captured him in Richmond, and sent him North, a prisoner of war.

Hero is a dog about seven feet in length from tip to top, weighing nearly two hundred pounds. He is a splendid cross between a russian bloodhound and a bull-dog, and combines the faithfulness of the one with the ferocity of the other. We have seen him seize little dogs that came around his heels, shake them and cast them twenty feet from him. The stoutest man he would bring to the ground by one gripe on the throat, and it was always a difficult matter to get him off if he had once tasted or smelled blood.

His dogship belonged originally to Joseph Mayo, late Mayor, and by him was loaned to Capt. G. W. Alexander, at one time Commandant of the Castle post.

Hero too, had a theatrical turn, and used to perform a dog's part in the play of the "Virginia Cavalier," at the New Theatre. Abandoning the stage, Hero returned to his post as sentinel at the Castle, and remained through the successive reigns of the several commandants up to the evening of Monday, April 3, 1865.

Hero was a "rebel" dog during all the days of the rebellion, but we learn he has taken a fancy to his captors, and is trying to be a good, loyal, Union dog.

Hero in Richmond, was an official, stern-looking dog, and he was as well known as any of the crabbed officials themselves, and was respected accordingly. His old acquaintances will be glad to hear that his dogship has the prospect of an engagement for exhibition. Some menagerie, or Barnum will get him.

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