The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-07-15

Ills SOIllpoIy, Uul TIC IldIldSGu TO get
away in a day or two, and the next
thing heard of him was a scrawl, in
which he said that o. of them had
run a confederate calf into the woods
and would divide the veal with head
quarters if a regiment was sent to as
sist them to make a capture. Had
Burnside hung on he might have is-
sued another order, but even had it
announced instant death as the penalty
of cumming he could not have abol-
ished it.
CAUGHT IN A SPRING-HOUSE.
A portion of Clusters command was
scouting toward Berryville one dav
before the battle Of Winchester, when
it came upon a queer state of affairs
at a farm house. Two hours previ-
ously a gang of seven bummers had
come along and started in to loot the
house. The farmer was a confederate
soldier, who was home or a furlough
to be nursed for a wound in his thigh.
He was not able to leave his bed, but
his ~wifehanded him his musket and
he shot one of the men dead and drove
the rest out. They did not go away,
however, being determined to kill him
and burn his house in revenge. He had
his bed drawn to the door, and being
propped up. he kept them away from
! the rear of the house, while his wife,
who was armed with an old revolver,
fired often enough to prevent any ap-
proach to the front. There was a
spring hous of solid build a few rods
from the back door, and the bummers
entered it to regale themselves before
closing in on the house. The door
opened inwards, m While they were
playing havoc with the milk pans the
woman approached and pulled the door
to and thrust a stick through the ham
die. The structure was too solid to be
beaten down, and as there was but one
window the men tried to make their
escape that way. Propped up in his
bed, with his wound paining him at
every movement, the confederate fired
at every head thrust out, and his bull
lets flew so close that all attempts were
soon abandoned. We found him with
his musket in his grasp and a dead
man on the floor, and we also found
the soldiers huddled together in the
spring house. The confederate could
have been carried off a prisoner of
war, but he was not disturbed. On
the contrary, while a hundred blue
coats were dividing their rations with
the wife, the officers were making cash
donations to the husband. AS for the
bummers, they were turned over to the
rank n file to be kicked, and they got
a dose to be remembered all their days.
Custer rather favored a man who set
out for adventure between the lines,
but he had nc mercy on looters and
robbers.
AS the confederates were fighting
mostly at home there were few bum,
merS in comparison. There were guer-
rllla bands who robbed friend and foe
alike, but individual soldiers were not
given to it. The golden opportunity
came when Lee invaded Pennsylvania.
Before crossing the Potomac he issued
the strictest orders against looting,
but they were observed only in Mary
land. When the Yankee state was once
reached thousands of men went to for
aging on their account. They were
ahead of the army-behind ton both
TANKS. They foraged or horseback, on
foot and in wagons. For fifteen miles
on either side of the highways they
did not miss a farm house. The first
callers gobbled the horses. The next
wanted provisions. The next looted the
houses. Men on foot bore away looking
glasses, trunks, bedding, crockery, tin
ware-anything they could carry. Those
on horseback had great bundles in
front and behind them. In a train Of
twenty-eight confederate wagons cap
tured on the retreat was found almost
every article used by civilized people.
The bummers had taken pillow points,
NA~o SSSAAS oAu SOA1d4S, rusty
spikes, cracked jugs, kegs of vinegar,
handleless axes, n even the "old
oaken buckets from the wells. There
were Wba and iron wedges; there
were buggy wheels and lace curtains,
There were farmers boots, childrens'
shoes and women's slippers, and hosiery
belonging to all of them. In one wa
gon a family bible, two checkerboards,
an old gun barrel, children's picture
books, Webster's dictionary, a lot of
cucumber pickles and a WORKOUT har-
ness were flung into a box together,
The Pennsylvania Dutchmen were the
principal sufferers, and they did not
get through filing their claims for five
years after h war. No houses or
barns were burned, but no farmer es-
capped being despoiled. Not one in a
dozen of them had time to hide any,
thing, and a quarter of an hour after
the first hummer showed up the farmer
was a financial wreck. Nine-tenths of
the stuff loaded up was worthless to
the captors, but forage and commissary
supplies were thrown away to take it.
After the battle of Falling Waters,
when Lee finally crossed the river, he
left on the Pennsylvania shore about
thirty broken down wagons. In one Of
these was a Dutch bedstead of mahog-
any, which looked to be 200 years old,
n it was so heavy that it must have
TAKEN TOUR men TO lit 1t. 1t weighed
800 pounds, and what its captors were
going to do with it was a puzzle. There
was at least one big looking glass to
every wagon, and the various rag car
pets put together would have meas
ured two miles. A coffin and a tomb
stone were about the only two articles
missing.
Sieradz in Russian Poland has been
the scene of a strange and successful
strike. The professional beggars of the