hen we halted
for the night's camp, while others would drop, exhausted, too tired
to even put up their tents or cook a supper, these foragers would
overcome every obstacle, climb mountains, and wade rivers in search
of something to eat or drink, and be back in camp before day. In every
regiment and in almost every company you could find these foragers,
who were great stragglers, dropping in the rear or flanking to the
right or left among the farm houses in search of honey, butter, bread,
or liquors of some kind. Some of these foragers in the brigade were
never known to be without whiskey during the whole war. Where, how, or
when they got it was as a sealed book to the others. These foragers,
too, when out on one of their raids, were never very particular
whether the owner of the meat or spring house, or even the cellar, was
present or not, should they suspicion or learn from outside parties
that these places contained that for which they were looking. If at
night, they would not disturb the old man, but while some would watch,
others would be depredating upon his pig pen, chicken roost, or milk
house. It was astonishing what a change in the morals of men army life
occasioned. Someone has said, "A rogue in the army, a rogue at home;"
but this I deny. Sometimes that same devilish, schoolboy spirit that
actuates the truant to filch fruit or melons from orchards of others,
while he had abundance at home, caused the soldier oftentimes to make
"raids," as they called these nocturnal visits to the farm houses
outlying the army's track. I have known men who at home was as
honorable, honest, upright, and who would scorn a dishonest act, turn
out to be veteran foragers, and rob and steal anything they could get
their hands on from the citizens, friend or foe alike. They become
to look upon all as "fish for a soldier's net." I remember the first
night on Fisher's Hill, after fighting and marching all day, two of
my men crossed over the Massanutton Mountain and down in the Luray
Valley, a distance of ten miles or more, and came back before day
with as unique a load of plunder as I ever saw. While in some of the
mountain gorges they came upon a "spring house" a few hundred feet
from the little cabin, nestled and hid in one of those impenetrable
caves, where the owner, no doubt, thought himself safe from all the
outside world. They had little difficulty in gaining an entrance, but
all was dark, so kneeling down and examining the troug