Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1903-02-14
FORAGERS AT WORK.
Tho Men Sometimes Were Abscnt
from Their Companies for
Weeks at N Time.

THE thing that most interested
me-" said the adjutant, according to
the Chicago Inter Ocean. 'was the uu.
swerving loyalty of even the most
reckless foragers to their command.
ers 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 il was found that such men
were far in advance, taking care of
themselves and devoting themselves
zealously to the interests of the army.
Sometimes they were 20 or 80 miles
from their companies. They had
forged ahead under she soldierly inn
pulse of doing the best they could and
had been carried beyond their own
plans of the morning. Sometimes
they were surrounded by the enemy
and had to fight their way out At
other times they were in hiding and
could not report until the enemy was
driven away.
Again having learned the location
of heavy supplies of forage and pro-
visions, they were keeping watch that
the supplies might not be carried off
by the confederates. In one case
remember party of a dozen men took
possession of every vehicle in neigh
borhood and met the advance regi-
ment of their brigade with wagons,
carts and old family coaches loaded
with supplies. In another case when
Gen. Howard was deploying a division
to capture an important railway five
miles away a hummer rode up to re-
port that a squad of foragers had al
ready captured the road. and wanted
him to hurry up. Wherever the
foragers were, they were. in their own
language, 'workin' for Uncle Sam
This meant that they were doing
whatever came to their hand in the
service of the government. If they
had cared to desert or to shirk duty,
opportunities were open to them in
every direction, but in nod single
case in our division did any forager
who escaped the enemy's bullets fail
to report to his company. Many of
them were punished for missing roll
calls. Not few of them were marked
on the rolls as absent without leave,
but they accepted punishment and
seedlings in good spirit, saying that a
man who was working for Uncle Sam
could not be particular.
In one case, one of our men was
absent for over two weeks and the
conclusion was that he had been killed
In some skirmish or that he had taken
French leave. But in the end it ap-
peared that one of his squad of
foragers had been severely wounded
and that he had remained with his
wounded acquaintance until the lat
ter was well enough to be moved,
when he carried him TO the road along
which he knew the union troops were
passing and reported all the circum-
stances to the commanding officer of
the regiment. This officer in due time
made report to our own regimental
commander and the soldier who had
been marked absent without leave
was received by his comrades as q
bully boy
Sometimes" said the sergeant,
"the regulation hummer was in the
rear. He seemed to know when the
confederate cavalry would attempt to
cut in between brigades, and he was
nearly always just foolin' round
whenever anything of that kind ham
pened. Often hummer on a mule
would give notice of a movement to