Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1875-06-25
Extract. From shsrman,s Memoirs.



HOW THE FOURTEENTH CORPS GOT IT'S
BADGE.
Having seen enough we returned
to Chattanooga; and in order to hur-
ry up my command, on which so
much depended, 1 started back to
Kelly's in hopes to catch the steam
boat that same evening; but on my
arrival the boat had gone. l Iapplied
to the commanding officer, got
rough boat manned by four soldiers,
and started down the river by night.
I occasionally took turn at the oars
to relieve some tired man, and about
midnight we reached Shell Mound
where General Whitaker, of Ken
lucky, furnished us with a new and
good crew, with which we reached
Bridgeport by daylight. l started
Ewing's division in advance, with Or
ders to turn aside toward Trenton to
make the enemy believe that we were
going to turn Bragg's left by pretty
much the same road Rosecrans had
followed; but with the other three
divisions l followed the main road,
via the Big Trestle at Whitesides,
and reached General Hooker's head
quarters, just above Wahatchee, on
the Goth; my troops strung all the
way back to Bridgeport. 1t was on
this occasion that the Fourteenth
Corps gained its peculiar badge: as
the men were trudging along the
deeply-cut, muddy road, of cold
drizzly day, one Of our Western sol
diers left his ranks and joined party
of the Twelfth Corps at the camp p-fire.
They got into conversation, the
Twelfth Corps men asking what
troops we were, ETC., etc. In turn,
our fellow (who had meyer seen
corps-badge, and noticed that every
thing was marked with a starr asked
if they were all brigadier-generals.
OF course they were not, but the star
was their corps-badge, and every
wagon, tent, hat, ETC., had it's star.
Then the Twelfth Corps men inquired
what corps he belonged to, and he
answered, "The Fourteenth Corps.'
"What's your badger" "Why, said
he land he was an Irishman), suiting
the action to the word, forty rounds
in the catridge-box, and twenty in
the pocket" At that time Blair
commanded the corps; but Logan
succeeded soon after, and, hearing
the story, adopted the catridg box
and forty rounds as the corps badge.
ENGINEERING FEATs.
Ten thousand men were distribu-
ted along the break from Big Shanty
to above Ackworth) to replace the
ties and to prepare the road-bed,
while the regular repair-party, under
Colonel w. w. Wright, came down
from Chattanooga with iron, spikes,
ETC., and in about seven days the road
was all right again. 1t was by such
acts Of extraordinary energy that we
discouraged our adversaries, for the
rebel soldiers felt that it was a waste
Of labor for them to march hurridly
in wide circuits, day and night, to
burn bridge and tear up a mile or
so of track, when they knew we
could lay it back SO quickly. They
supposed we had men and money
without limit, and that we always
kept on hand along the road, dupli-
Gates Of every bridge and culvert of
any Importance.
A good story is told of one who
was on Kenesaw Mountain during
our advance the previous June or
July. A group of rebel soldiers lay
in the shade of a tree, one hot day,
overlooking our camps about Big
Shanty. One Of the soldiers remark
ed to his fellows:
"Well, the Yanks will have to get
up and get now, for l heard General
johnson himself say that General
Wheeler has blown up the tunnel at
Dalton, and that the Yanks would
have to retreat, because they could
get no more rations."
'sOh, hell" said listener, ''don't
you know that old Sherman carries
duplicate tunnel along?"
After the war was over General
Johnston inquired of me who was
our chief railroad engineer. When l
told him that it was Colonel w. w.
Wright, civilian, he was much sur
prised, and said that our feats of
bridge building and repairs of roads
had excited his admiration; and he
instanced the occasion at Kenesaw in
June, when an officer from Wheeler's
cavalry had reported to him in per-
son thai he had come from General
Wheeler, who had made bad break
in our road about Tilton Station,
which he said would take at least
fortnight to repair; and, while they
were talking, a train was seen coming
down the road, which had passed
that very break.
FORAGING ON THE MARCH TO THE SEA.
The skill and success OF the men In
collecting forage was one Of the tea-
lures of this march. Each brigade
commander had authority to detail
company of foragers, usually about
fifty men, with one or two commits
stoned officers selected for their cool
ness and enterprise. This party
would be dispatched before daylight
with knowledge of the intended
days march and camp; would pro-
ceed on foot five or six miles from
the route travelled by their brigade,
and then visit every plantation and
farm within range. They would usu-
ally procure wagon or family car
riage, load it with bacon, corn meal,
turkeys, chickens ducks, and every
thing that could be used as food or
forage, and would then regain the
main road, usually in advance of
their train. When this came up,
they would deliver to the Brigade
Commissary the supplies thus gather
ed by the way. Often would l pass
these foraging parties at the road
side, waiting for their wagons to
come up, and was amused at their
strange collections-mules, horses,
even cattle, packed with old saddles
loaded with hams, bacon, bags of