Indeed. Originally the ornithologists who were classifying all known species of birds into categories were a bit perplexed with this one. They obviously realized it was a raptor but they didn't know if they should place it with the "fish-eating" eagles such as the venerable bald eagle, the stellar's sea eagle etc. since it's diet is strictly fish. But even the sea eagles don't eat fish only and so they figured the osprey was such a specialist that it might need it's own category. They couldn't classify it under any type of hawk/buteo or buzzard either and it's certainly not a falcon or owl or vulture. So they ended up temporarily classifying it as part of the eagle family but that didn't last long until they gave it its own category and it sits there with no other bird. Its inside toe is also designed with the flexibility to either go forward or backward, sort of having the option of being like an owl with two toes forward and two facing rearward or it can go the conventional way that most raptors are built with three toes forward and the halux facing backward. Indeed a magnificent bird.
Going back to The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and that line with Chippewa in it I was telling you about that your posting of that song reminded me of one of the coolest stories in American history.
In 1861, this guy who was an Indian chief of the Wisconsin tribe at South Fork of the Flambeau River.
Ahgamahwegezhig (Chief Sky)
He saw a tree with a big bald eagle nest with 2 chicks in it and back in the day, they could cut trees down without any problems and so he did. One eagle died from the fall and he took the other. Then he canoed up the Chippewa river (this is all in Chippewa country, Wisconsin) all the way up to an area called Jim Falls which was a big trading area. The Indian chief ended up trading the eaglet to a tavern owner (Daniel McCann) for a bushel of corn.
The eaglet grew pretty fast and was becoming a terror and the McCann family had a tough time dealing with it as a pet. So one night, a bunch of Union soldiers came into the tavern and saw the eagle. Next thing you know, McCann is offering to sell the eagle to the soldiers for $2:50. The soldiers were from a company that was called the "Eau Claire Badgers". They drew a hat and took .25c contributions until they came up with the $2:50 and bought the eagle from McCann.
They took the eagle back to the camp figuring they could make it their mascot (even though they were badgers.) The next morning, the company sergeant saw the bird and said "we'll call him Old Abe" after the great Abraham Lincoln of course.
In late 1861, these eagle-bearing Badgers got on a steam ship trip down the Chippewa river to the Mississippi and up the Wisconsin River to Madicson, Wisconsin where they arrived to be attached as Company C to the 8th
Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment.
Next thing you know, they're building him a special emblem perch and designating a special "eagle bearer" who would hold him on that perch and he would be part of the colors (flags).
Old Abe and the color guard at Vicksburg, July 1863:
Ed Homaston (far left holding perch), Sgt Ambrose Armitage (third from left)
They would march into battle against the confederates who started noticing this bald eagle was riding in with them and they also figured that these guys were getting attached to this bird since they heard all about its name etc. So they started aiming at the eagle thinking if they killed it, it would ruin the moral of this Wisconsin 8th volunteer regiment. He survived several attempts at his life until the lieutenant decided to put the color regiment in the back of the line, further away from the line of fire because they didn't want this eagle they came to love to get anywhere near a flying slug.
He ended up being involved in something like 38 different battles and skirmishes and survived every single one. He was eventually decorated as a hero and became just that. After the war, he would be paraded through the streets of Madison and people would line up to see him and wave to him. There were legends made of him that he would soar over the battlefield and warn his soldiers of attackers coming from the flanks and he would dodge bullets and cannon fire coming at him and extraordinary stories like that were made of him. He was a true hero with a great name.
They even said he had such a great personality that he would know when it was time to have his picture taken that he would pose for it.
Old Abe was the inspiration behind the famous 101st Screaming Eagles airborne patch.
The Chippewa line in that song reminded me of this story and wasn't sure if you had heard of this before or not. Definitely one of the cooler aspects of that nasty period of US history.