The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1902-11-14
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"A
tain, ''are yet to be told Of the army
foragers. On one occasion on the
march from Savannah to Goldsboro,
the longest, by the way, ever made by
an army in modern times, the boys
who had pushed far to the front in
tercepted the correspondence between
Wade Hampton and General Beaure-
gard. Hampton had been ordered to
stop Sherman's army at all hazards,
and he returned the order with the
mans bummers.'
This showed such appreciation on
Hampton's part that the boys rather
liked him, but they gave him lots OF
trouble and lived up to the reputation
he gave them. They pressed forward
every day into the enemy's country and
became resourceful in organizing and
resisting attack. If they came on
company or regiment of rebel cavalry
the bummers did not fall back on the
main force, or scatter before the reb-
els. but acting on a system of their
own formed line, and skir1nished un~
til reinforced. More often than 9TH
erwise the foragers of one division raj
lied to the support Of those of another
and beat off the rebels before the ad-
vance guard Of the army came up.
''Under such training men became
reckless and venturesome, but they
became also self-poised and resource
fal. Most particularly was this true
OF the bodies Of mounted men whose
duty it was to keep open communion
ton between the several columns adj
yancing on different roads. have in
mind twenty or thirty members of the
Twentieth Illinois infantry, who were
mounted and served as a sort of body
guard to General Leggett. They form
ell really an independent company, en-
gagged in all sorts Of expeditions and
duties. All of them had seen three
years service and were particularly
well-fitted for the duties assigned to
them by general and staff officers.
when we were near Bentonville a
squad from this Twentieth Illinois
company was sent across the country
carrying important dispatches. They
met the enemy's cavalry and the few
men deployed at once as they would
have deployed had they been supported
by Sull regiment. While they Ell
gagged the enemy the officer in COM
mand sat coolly on his horse striking
matches. In every minute Of that
skirmish he held lighted match in
one hand and the dispatches in the
other. He was perfectly cool. He
knew just what he was going to do
and he was not in danger of making q
mistake. If his men were surrounded
or captured he proposed to burn the
dispatches, and he had a match ready
to burn them, but in the end the Twen-
tieth boys drove the enemy and the
dispatches were delivered This was
observation-disclosures that grew upon the
men with their experience in an enc
my's country in advance of the army"
The thing that most interested me-"
said the Adjutant twas the unswerv-
ing loyalty OF even the most reckless
foragers to their commanders and to
the army as an army. In hundreds of
cases on the march to Savannah and
on the longer march OF 425 miles from
there to Goldsboro men were absent
from company roll call for several days
in succession. At first this absence
caused great deal of Irritation, but
as the march proceeded it was found
that such men were far in advance,
taking care Of themselves and devot-
ing themselves Zealously to the inter-
ests Of the army. Sometimes they
were twenty or thirty miles from their
companies. They had forged ahead
under the soldierly impulse of doing
the best they could and had been car
ried beyond their own plans of the
morning. Sometimes they were sur.
rounded by the enemy and had to fight
their way out. At other times they
were in hiding and could not report un-
til the enemy was driven away.
again, having learned the location
vi Aed'y supplies VI forage ana pro-
visions, they were keeping watch that
the supplies might not be carried off
by the rebels. In one case remember
. party Of a dozen men took posses.
sion OF every vehicle in neighbornood
and met the advance regiment of their
brigade with wagons, carts, and old
family coaches loaded with supplies.
In another case when General Howard
was deployirg a division to capture
al important railway five miles away
hummer rode up to report that a
squad of foragers had already captured
the road, and wanted him to hurry I'D,
Wherever the foragers were, they
were, in their own language, 'wcrkin'
for Uncle SAM
''This meant that they were doing
whatever came to their hand in the
service of the Government. If thew
had cared to desert or to shirk duty.
opportunities were open to them in
every direction, but in not. single
case in our division, did any forager
who escaped the enemy's bullets fail
to- report to his company. Manv Of