Bummers

“Sherman’s ‘Bummers’ foraging in South Carolina. Our artist sent us with this sketch of ‘Bummers Foraging’ a graphic account of their modus operandi. He wrote: ‘These active and unscrupulous fellows generally started out every morning mounted on very mean horseflesh, and, as a general rule, they always came back very well mounted, with the animals they rode in the morning laden, even to breaking down, with all the good things of this world. In one place in South Carolina they came to a large plantation owned by a leading Confederate named Fitzgerald. Here the Federal soldiers found, buried in various out-of-the-way places, an immense quantity of gold and silver plate, of the aggregate value of over $70,000; here they also found a large quantity of the finest Madeira wine, which had been stowed away in the old gentleman’s wine cellar for nearly thirty years. Indeed, as a general thing, it may be said that the brave fellows had plenty of good wine to drink on their memorable march through Georgia and South Carolina.’"— Frank Leslie, 1896

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