FORAGING.
Can we all forget the foraging the boys were prone to do,
As with problematic rations we were marching Dixie through;
And the dulcet screech of chanticleer or soothing squeal of swine,
When occurred the grateful halt or brief excursion from the line?
PROF. S. B. SUMNER.
[Illustration]
There was one other source from which soldiers—at least, some
soldiers—replenished their larder, or added to its variety. The means
employed to accomplish this end was known as _Foraging_, which is
generally understood to mean a seeking after food, whether for man or
beast, and appropriating to one’s own use whatsoever is found in this
line, wheresoever it is found in an enemy’s country. It took the army
some time to adopt this mode of increasing its stores. This arose from
the fact that early in the war many of the prominent government and
military officers thought that a display of force with consideration
shown the enemy’s property would win the South back to her allegiance
to the Union; but that if, on the other hand, they devastated property
and appropriated personal effects, it would only embitter the enemy,
unite them more solidly, and greatly prolong the war; so that for many
months after war began, Northern troops were prohibited from seizing
fence-rails, poultry, swine, straw, or any similar merchandise in
which they might under some circumstances feel a personal interest;
and whenever straw-stacks and fences _were_ appropriated by order of
commanding officers, certificates to that effect were given the owners,
who might expect at some time to be reimbursed. But the Rebellion waxed
apace, and outgrew all possibility of certificating everybody whose
property was entered upon or absorbed, and furthermore it came to be
known that many who had received certificates were in collusion with the
enemy, so that the issuance of these receipts gradually grew beautifully
less.
Then, there was another obstacle in the way of a general adoption of
foraging as an added means of support. It was the presence in the army
of a large number of men who had learned the ten commandments, and could
not, with their early training and education, look upon this taking to
themselves the possessions of others without license as any different
from stealing. These soldiers would neither forage nor share in the
fruits of foraging. It can be readily imagined, then, that when one of
this class commanded a regiment the diversion of foraging was not likely
to be very general with his men. But as the war wore on, and it became
more evident that such tender regard for Rebel property only strengthened
the enemy and weakened the cause of the Union, conscientious scruples
stepped to the rear, and the soldier who had them at the end of the war
was a curiosity indeed.
There are some phases of this question of foraging which at this late
day may be calmly considered, and the right and wrong of it carefully
weighed. In the first place, international law declares that in a hostile
section an army may save its rations and live off the country. To the
large majority of the soldiers this would be sufficient warrant for them
to appropriate from the enemy whatever they had a present liking for
in the line of provisions. If all laws were based on absolute justice,
the one quoted would settle the question finally, and leave nothing as
an objection to foraging. But while the majority make the laws, the
consciences and convictions of the minority are not changed thereby.
Each man’s conscience must be a final law unto himself. It is well for
it to be so. I only enlarge upon this for a moment to show that on all
moral questions every intelligent man must in a measure make his own law,
having Conscience as a guide.
[Illustration: A DISCOVERY. ACT I.]
[Illustration: ACT II.]
The view which the average soldier took was, as already intimated, in
harmony with the international law quoted. This view was, in substance,
that the people of the South were in a state of rebellion against the
government, notwithstanding that they had been duly warned to desist from
war and return to their allegiance: that they had therefore forfeited
all claim to whatever property the soldier chose to appropriate; that
this was one of the risks they assumed when they raised the banner of
secession; that for this, and perhaps other reasons, they should be
treated just as a foreign nation waging war against the United States,
all of which may seem plausible at first view, and indeed it may be
said just here that if the soldiers had always despoiled the enemy to
supply their own pressing personal needs, or if they had always taken
or destroyed only those things which could be of service to the enemy
in the prosecution of the war, the arguments against foraging would be
considerably weakened; but the authority to forage carried with it also
the exercise of the office of judge and jury, from whom there was no
appeal. If the owner of a lot of corn or poultry was to protest against
losing it, on the ground that he was a Unionist, unless the proof was
at hand, he would lose his case—that is, his corn and chickens. However
sincere he may have been, it was not possible for him to establish
his Union sentiments at short notice. Indeed, so many who really were
“secesh” claimed to be good Union men, it came latterly to be assumed
that the victim was playing a false rôle on all such occasions, and so
the soldiers went straight for the plunder, heeding no remonstrances.
Without doubt, hundreds of Union men throughout the South suffered losses
in this way, which, if their loyalty could have been clearly shown, they
would have been spared.
A good deal of the foraging, while unauthorized and forbidden by
commanding officers, was often connived at by them, and they were
frequently sharers in the spoils; but I was about to say that it was not
always of the most judicious kind. No one, better than the old soldiers,
knows how destitute many, if not most, of the houses along the line of
march were of provisions, clothing, and domestic animals, after the first
few months of the war. I will amend that statement. There _was_ one class
who knew better than the soldiers,—the _tenants_ of those houses knew
that destitution better—sometimes feigned it, may be, but as a rule it
was the ugly and distressing reality. I am dealing now with the Army
of the Potomac, which travelled the same roads year after year, either
before or behind the Rebel Army of Northern Virginia. In or near the
routes of these bodies little was attempted by the people in the way of
crop-raising, for their products were sure to feed one or the other of
the two armies as they tramped up and down the state, so that destitution
in some of the wayside cabins and farm-houses was often quite marked.
No one with a heart less hard than flint could deprive such families of
their last cow, shote, or ear of corn. Yet there were many unauthorized
foragers who would not hesitate a moment to seize and carry off the
last visible mouthful of food. So it has seemed to me that the cup of
Rebellion was made unnecessarily bitter from the fact that such appeals
too often fell on deaf ears. Granting it to be true that the Rebels had
forfeited all right to whatever property their antagonists saw fit to
appropriate, yet in the absence of those Rebels their families ought
not to suffer want and distress; the innocent should not suffer for the
guilty, and when nothing was known against them they should not have been
deprived of their last morsel. But there were exceptions. There were some
families who gave information to the Rebel army or detachments of it, by
which fragments of ours were killed or captured, and when this was known
the members of that family were likely sooner or later to suffer for it,
as would naturally be expected.
Some of these families were so destitute that they were at times driven
to appeal to the nearest army headquarters for rations to relieve their
sufferings. To do this it was often necessary for them to walk many
miles. Horses they had not. They could not keep them, for if the Union
cavalry did not “borrow,” the Rebel cavalry would impress them; so that
they were not only without a beast of burden for farm work, but had
none to use as a means of transportation. Now and then a sore-backed,
emaciated, and generally used-up horse or mule, which had been abandoned
and left in the track of the army to die, was taken charge of, when the
coast was clear, and nursed back into vitality enough to stand on at
least three of his legs, when, by means of bits of tattered rope, twisted
corn-husks, and odds and ends of leather which had seen better days, the
sorry-looking brute, still bearing the brand _U. S._ or _C. S._ on his
rump, partly concealed perhaps by his rusty outfit, was tackled into a
nondescript vehicle, possibly the skeleton remains of what had been, in
years gone by, the elegant and stylish family carriage, but fully as
often into a two-wheeled cart, which now answered all the purposes of
the family in its altered circumstances. One would hardly expect to find
in such a brute a _Goldsmith Maid_ or a _Jay Eye See_ in locomotion,
and so as a matter of fact such a beast was urged on from behind by
lusty thwacks from a cudgel, propelling the family at a headlong
_walk_—headlong, because he was likely to go headlong at any moment, from
lack of strength, over the rough Virginia roads.
[Illustration: GOING TO ARMY HEADQUARTERS.]
When such a brute got to be pretty lively once more, unless he was
concealed, he would soon fall into service again in one of the armies,
and possibly another gasping skeleton left in his place; but later in
the war all animals abandoned by the Union army were shot if any life
remained in them, so that even this resource was to that extent cut off
from the inhabitants, and the family _cow_, while she was spared, was
fitted out for such service.
But the soldiers did not always content themselves with taking eatables
and forage. Destruction of the most wanton and inexcusable character was
sometimes indulged in. It is charged upon them when the army entered
Fredericksburg, in 1862, that they took especial delight in bayonetting
mirrors, smashing piano-keys with musket-butts, pitching crockery out
of windows, and destroying other such inoffensive material, which could
be of no possible service to either party. If they had been imbibing
commissary whiskey, they were all the more unreasonable and outrageous
in their destruction. Whenever a man was detected in the enactment of
such disgraceful and unsoldierly conduct, he was put under arrest, and
sentenced by court-martial. But this class of men was an insignificantly
small fraction of an army, although seeming very numerous to their
victims.
A regularly authorized body of foragers, in charge of a commissioned
officer, never gave way to excesses like those I have mentioned. Their
task was usually well defined. It was to go out with wagons in quest of
the contents of smoke-houses or barns or corn-barns; and if a flock of
fowls or a few swine chanced to be a part of the live-stock of the farms
visited, the worse for the live-stock and Secessia, and the better for
the Union army. The usual plunder secured by regular foraging parties was
hams, bacon sides, flour, sweet potatoes, corn-meal, corn on the cob, and
sometimes corn-shooks as they were called, that is, corn-leaves stripped
from the stalks, dried and bundled, for winter fodder. The neat cattle in
the South get the most of their living in the winter by browsing, there
being but little hay cured.
In traversing fresh territory, the army came upon extensive quantities
of corn in corn-ricks. At Wilcox’s Landing, on the James River, where we
crossed in June, 1864, the Rebel Wilcox, who had a splendid farm on the
left bank of the river, had hundreds of bushels of corn, I should judge,
which the forage trains took aboard before they crossed over; and on the
south side of the James, east from Petersburg, where Northern troops had
never before penetrated, many such stores of corn were appropriated to
feed the thousands of loyal quadrupeds belonging to Uncle Sam.
[Illustration: A CORN-BARN AND HAY-RICK.]
In this section, too, and in the territory stretching from the Wilderness
to Cold Harbor, immense quantities of tobacco were found in the various
stages of curing. The drying-houses were full of it. These houses were
rude structures, having water-tight roofs, but with walls built of small
logs placed two or three inches apart, to admit a free circulation of
air. On poles running across the interior hung the stalks of tobacco,
root upwards. Then, in other buildings were hogsheads pressed full of the
“weed,” in another stage of the curing. It is well known that Petersburg
is the centre of a very extensive tobacco-trade, and in that city are
large tobacco-factories. But the war put a summary end to this business
for the time, by closing northern markets and blockading southern ports,
so that this article of foreign and domestic commerce accumulated in the
hands of the producers to the very great extent found by the army when it
appeared in that vicinity. Every soldier who had a liking for tobacco
helped himself as freely as he pleased, with no one caring to stay his
hand. But I believe that the experts in smoking and chewing preferred
the black navy plug of the sutler, at a dollar and a quarter, to this
unprepared but purer article to be had by the taking.
[Illustration: TOBACCO-DRYING HOUSES.]
While the army lay at Warrenton Sulphur Springs, after Gettysburg in
’63, a detail of men was made from my company daily to take scythes from
the “Battery Wagon,” and, with a six-mule team, go off and mow a load
of grass wherever they could find it within our lines, to eke out the
government forage. The same programme was enacted by other batteries in
the corps.
As Sherman’s Bummers achieved a notoriety as foragers _par excellence_,
some facts regarding them will be of interest in this connection.
Paragraphs 4 and 6 of Sherman’s _Special Field Orders_ 120, dated Nov. 9,
1864, just before starting for Savannah, read as follows:—
“4. The army will forage liberally on the country during the march. To
this end each brigade commander will organize a good and sufficient
foraging party under the command of one or more discreet officers, who
will gather, near the route travelled, corn or forage of any kind, meat
of any kind, vegetables, corn-meal or whatever is needed by the command,
aiming at all times to keep in the wagons at least ten days’ provisions
for his command, and three days’ forage. Soldiers must not enter the
dwellings of the inhabitants or commit any trespass; but during a halt
or camp they may be permitted to gather turnips, potatoes, and other
vegetables, and to drive in stock in sight of their camp. To regular
foraging parties must be intrusted the gathering of provisions and forage
at any distance from the road travelled.”
“6. As for horses, mules, wagons, etc., belonging to the inhabitants,
the cavalry and artillery may appropriate freely and without limit;
discriminating, however, between the rich, who are usually hostile, and
the poor and industrious, usually neutral or friendly. Foraging parties
may also take mules or horses, to replace the jaded animals of their
trains or to serve as pack-mules, for the regiments or brigades. In all
foraging of whatever kind, the parties engaged will refrain from abusive
or threatening language, and may, where the officer in command thinks
proper, give written certificates of the facts, but no receipts; and they
will endeavor to leave with each family a reasonable portion for their
maintenance.”
As Sherman was among the commanders who believed most heartily in having
those who provoked the conflict suffer the full measure of their crime,
the above instructions seem certainly very mild and humane. On page
182, Vol. II., of his Memoirs, and also on pages 207-8, in a letter to
Grant, describing the march, he presents a summary of the working of
the plan. His brigade foraging parties, usually comprising about fifty
men, would set out before daylight, knowing the line of march for the
day, and, proceeding on foot five or six miles from the column, visit
every farm and plantation in range. Their plunder consisted of bacon,
meal, turkeys, ducks, chickens, and whatever else was eatable for man or
beast. These they would load into the farm-wagon or family carriage, and
rejoin the column, turning over their burden to the brigade commissary.
“Often,” says Sherman, “would I pass these foraging parties at the
roadside, waiting for their wagons to come up, and was amused at their
strange collections—mules, horses, even cattle packed with old saddles,
and loaded with hams, bacon, bags of corn-meal, and poultry of every
description.... No doubt, many acts of pillage, robbery, and violence
were committed by these foragers, usually called ‘bummers’; for I have
since heard of jewelry taken from women, and the plunder of articles
that never reached the commissary; but these acts were exceptional and
incidental.” Sherman further states that his army started with about five
thousand head of cattle and arrived at the sea with about ten thousand,
and that the State of Georgia must have lost by his operations fifteen
thousand first-rate mules. As to horses, he says that every one of the
foraging party of fifty who set out daily on foot invariably returned
mounted, accompanying the various wagon-loads of provisions and forage
seized, and, as there were forty brigades, an approximation to the number
of horses taken can be made.
But this travelling picnic of the Western armies was unique. There is
nothing like it elsewhere in the history of the war. Certainly, the Army
of the Potomac could not present anything to compare with it. As a matter
of fact, there was no other movement in the war whose nature justified
such a season of riotous living as this one. But it illustrates in a
_wholesale_ way the kind of business other armies did on a _retail_ scale.
There was no arm of the service that presented such favorable
opportunities for foraging as did the cavalry, and none, I may add,
which took so great an advantage of its opportunity. In the first place,
being the eyes and the ears of the army, and usually going in advance,
cavalrymen skimmed the cream off the country when a general movement was
making. Then when it was settled down in camp they were the outposts and
never let anything in the line of poultry, bee-hives, milk-houses, and
apple-jack, not to enumerate other delicacies which outlying farm-houses
afforded, escape the most rigid inspection. Again, they were frequently
engaged in raids through the country, from the nature of which they were
compelled to live in large measure off southern products, seized as they
went along; but infantry and artillery must needs confine _their_ quests
for special rations to the homesteads near the line of march. The cavalry
not only could and did search these when they led the advance, but also
made requisitions on all houses in sight of the thoroughfares travelled,
even when they were two or three miles away, so that, in all probability,
they ate a smaller quantity of government rations, man for man, than did
any other branch of the land-service; but they did not therefore always
fare sumptuously, for now and then the cavalry too were in a strait for
rations.
Next to the cavalry, the infantry stood the best chance of good living on
foraged edibles, as their picket-duty took them away some distance from
the main lines and often into the neighborhood of farm-houses, from which
they would buy or take such additions to their rations as the premises
afforded. Then, they went out in reconnoitring parties, or, perhaps, to
do fatigue duty, such as the building of bridges, or the corduroying of
roads, which also opened opportunities for them to enlist a few turkeys
or chickens in the Union cause.
Perhaps the most unfortunate natives were those who chanced to live in
a house by the roadside in the direct line of march of the army, for,
from the time the head of the column struck such a house until the last
straggler left it, there was a continuous stream of officers and men
thronging into and about the premises, all ambitious to buy or beg or
take whatsoever in the line of eatables and drinkables was to be had
by either of these methods. The net result of this was to leave such
families in a starving condition, and finally begging rations from the
army. Those families by whose premises _both_ armies marched were in the
depths of distress, for Confederate soldiers let little in the way of
provisions escape their maws on their line of march, even in Virginia;
so that it was not unusual for such families to meet the Union advance
with tearful eyes, and relate the losses which they had sustained and the
beggary to which they had been reduced by the seizure of their last cow
and last ounce of corn-meal. Sometimes, no doubt, they deceived to ward
off impending search and seizure from a new quarter, but as a rule the
premises showed their statements to be true.
Sometimes the inhabitants were shrewd and watchful enough to scent danger
and secrete the articles most precious to them till the danger was past;
but not infrequently they were a little tardy in adopting such a measure,
and were overhauled just before they had reached cover, and despoiled of
the whole or a part of their treasure. The corn-fields of these roadside
residents were the saddest of spectacles after the army had passed along
in the early fall, for no native-born Southron had a finer appreciation
of the excellent qualities of “roasting ears” than the average Yankee
soldier, who left no stalk unstripped of its burden. Even the stalks
themselves were used, to regale the appetites of the horses and mules.
[Illustration: SCENE AT A WAYSIDE FARM-HOUSE.]
Volumes might be filled with incidents of foraging. I will relate one or
two that came under my own personal observation.
The people of Maryland undoubtedly enjoyed greater exemption from
foragers, as a whole, than did those of Virginia, for a larger number
of the former than of the latter were supposed to be loyal and were
therefore protected. I say _supposed_, for personally I am of the
opinion that the Virginians were fully as loyal as the Marylanders.
But a large number of the soldiers when fresh and new in the service
saw an enemy in every bush, and recognized no white man south of Mason
and Dixon’s line as other than a “secesh.” Very often they were right,
but the point I wish to make is that they indulged in foraging to a
greater extent probably than troops which had been longer in service.
Before my own company had seen any hard service it was located at
Poolesville, thirty-eight miles from Washington, where it formed part of
an independent brigade, which was included in the defences of Washington,
and under the command of General Heintzelman. While we lay there
drilling, growling, and feeding on government rations, a sergeant of the
guard imperilled his chevrons by leading off a midnight foraging party,
after having first communicated the general countersign to the entire
party. On this particular occasion a flock of sheep was the object of the
expedition. These sheep had been looked upon with longing eyes many times
by the men as they rode their horses to water by their pasture, which
was, perhaps, half a mile or more from camp.
As soon as the foragers came upon them in the darkness, the sheep
cantered away, and their adversaries, who could only see them when
near to them, followed in full pursuit. As the chase up and down the
enclosure, which was not a very large one, waxed warm, one of the
party, more noted for his zeal than his discretion, drew a revolver and
emptied nearly every barrel among the flock, doing no bodily injury to
the sheep, however, but he _did_ succeed in calling down upon his head
the imprecations of the sergeant, for his lack of good-sense, and with
reason, for in a few minutes the fire of the outer pickets was drawn.
This being heard and reported in camp, the long-roll was sounded, calling
into line the two regiments of infantry that lay near us, and causing
every preparation to be made to resist the supposed attack. The foragers,
meanwhile, skulked back to camp by the shortest route, bringing with them
two sheep that had been run down by some of the fleeter of the party. But
no one save an interested few, inside or outside of the company, ever
knew, until the story was told at a reunion of the company in ’79 or ’80,
the cause of all the tumult in camp that dark winter’s night.
On another occasion a party of five or six men stole out of camp at
midnight, in quest of poultry. They knew of a farm-house where poultry
was kept, but to ascertain its exact whereabouts at night was no easy
task. On looking around the premises they found that there was no
isolated out-building, whereupon they at once decided that the ell to the
main house must be the place which contained the “biddies”; but to enter
that might rouse the farmer and his family, which they did not care to
do. However, a council of war decided to take the risk, and storm the
place. Investigation showed the door to be padlocked, but a piece of iron
which lay conveniently near, on a window-sill, served to pull out the
staple, and the door was open. Meanwhile, guards had been posted at the
corners of the house, with drawn revolvers (which they would not have
dared to fire), and the captures began. One man entered the ell, and,
lighting a match, discovered that he had called at the right house, and
that the feathered family were at home. Among them he caught a glimpse of
two turkeys, and these, with four fowls taken one at a time by the neck,
to control their noise, were passed to another man standing at the door
with a pen-knife, who, having performed a successful surgical operation
on each, gave them to a third party to put in a bag.
Back of our camp stood the house of a secessionist,—at least, “Black
Mary,” his colored servant, said he was one,—and in his kitchen and
cook-stove, for the sum of twenty-five cents in scrip, having previously
dressed and stuffed them, Mary cooked the turkeys most royally, and one
commissioned officer of our company, at least, sat down to one of the
feasts, blissfully ignorant, of course, as to the source from which the
special ration was drawn.
Bee-hives were among the most popular products of foraging. The soldiers
tramped many a mile by night in quest of these depositories of sweets. I
recall an incident occurring in the Tenth Vermont Regiment—once brigaded
with my company—when some of the foragers, who had been out on a tramp,
brought a hive of bees into camp, after the men had wrapped themselves
in their blankets, and, by way of a joke, set it down stealthily on the
stomach of the captain of one of the companies, making business quite
lively in that neighborhood shortly afterwards.
[Illustration: NO JOKE.]
Foragers took other risks than that of punishment for absence from camp
or the column without leave. They were not infrequently murdered on these
expeditions. On the 7th of December, 1864, Warren’s Fifth Corps was
started southward from Petersburg, to destroy the Weldon Railroad still
further. On their return, they found some of their men, who had straggled
and foraged, lying by the roadside murdered, their bodies stark naked
and shockingly mutilated. One of Sherman’s men recently related how in
the Carolinas one of his comrades was found hanged on a tree, bearing
this inscription, “Death to all foragers.” A large number of men were
made prisoners while away from their commands after the usual fruits of
foraging—just how many, no one will ever know; and many of those not
killed on the spot by their captors ended their lives in the prison-pens.
During the expedition of the Fifth Corps alluded to, while the column
had halted at some point in its march, a few uneasy spirits, wishing for
something eatable to turn up, had made off down a hill, ahead of the
column, had crossed a stream, and reached the vicinity of a house on the
high ground the other side. Here a keen-scented cavalryman from the party
had started up two turkeys, which, as the pursuit grew close, flew up
on to the top of the smoke-house, whence, followed by their relentless
pursuer, they went still higher, to the ridge-pole of the main house
adjoining. Still up and forward pressed the trooper, his “soul in arms
and eager for the fray,” and as the turkeys with fluttering wings edged
away, the hungry veteran, now astride the ridge-pole, hopped along after,
when _ping!_ a bullet whistled by uncomfortably near him.
[Illustration: THE TURKEY HE DIDN’T CATCH.]
“What in thunder are you about!” blurted the cavalryman, suspecting his
comrades of attempting to shoot off his quarry in the moment of victory.
Receiving no satisfactory response from his innocent companions, who had
stood interested spectators of his exploit, yet unconscious of what he
was exclaiming at, he once more addressed himself to the pursuit when,
chuck! a bullet struck a shingle by his leg and threw the splinters in
his face. There was no mistaking the mark or the marksman this time,
and our trooper suddenly lost all relish for turkey, and, standing
not on the order of his going, came sliding and tumbling down off the
roof, striking the ground with too much emphasis and a great deal of
feeling, where, joined by his comrades, who by this time had taken in
the situation, he beat a hasty retreat, followed by the jeers of the
Johnnies, and rejoined the column.
[Illustration: A DILEMMA.]
A veteran of the Seventh New Hampshire tells of one Charley Swain, who
was not only an excellent duty soldier, but a champion forager. While
this regiment lay at St. Augustine, Fla., in 1863, Swain started out on
one of his quests for game, and, although it had grown rather scarce,
at last found two small pigs penned up in the suburbs of the town. His
resolve was immediately made to take them into camp. Securing a barrel,
he laid it down, open at one end, in a corner of the pen, and without
commotion soon had both grunters inside the barrel, and the barrel
standing on end. By hard tugging he lifted it clear of the pen, and,
taking it on his back, started rapidly for camp. But his passengers were
not long reconciled to such quick and close transit, for he had not
proceeded far before grunts developed into squeals, squeals into internal
dissensions, to which the bottom of the barrel at last succumbed, and
a brace of pigs were coursing at liberty. Here was a poser for the
spoilsman. If he caught them again, how should he carry them? While he
was attempting to solve this problem the cavalry patrol hove in sight,
and Swain made for camp, where, crestfallen and chagrined, he related how
he had left to the greedy maws of the provost-guard the quarry which he
had hoped to share with his mess that night.
In considering this question of foraging, it has not been my purpose to
put the soldiers of the Union armies in an unfair or unfavorable position
as compared with their opponents. It has been claimed that Southerners
on northern soil were more vindictive and wanton than Northerners on
southern soil; and the reason on which this statement is based is that
the South hated the Yankees, but the North hated only slavery. Nor is
it my intention to charge atrocities upon the best men of either army.
They were committed by the few. And I do not wish to be understood as
declaring foraging a black and atrocious act, for, as I have shown, it
had a legal warrant. I only claim that when the order once goes forth it
leads to excesses, which it is difficult to control, and such excesses
are likely to seriously affect the unoffending, defenseless women and
children with woes out of all proportion with their simple part in
bringing on the strife. But so it always has been, and so it probably
always will be, till wars and rumors of wars shall cease.
[Illustration]