"The Foragers job was one that held many appeals. To many of them there was that "semi-independent" feel to the task. Usually forager detachments were headed by a Captain. No high ranking general watching your every move. Also once a forager force was sent out, the force could even be weakened further by spreading out into even more smaller detachments. These detachments would then fan out and take from the local plantations/farms etc.
Although this appears to be little more then "a roundup" job, it had its dangers. Yes, Sherman's army had a nearly 3 to 1 advantage over their rebel counterparts in numbers of combatants in South Carolina. However the foragers would not share this superiority. The foragers would usually go out in small details of about fifty men. Confederate Cavalry usually traveled in force, with the smaller Confederate cavalry units being a couple of hundred mostly. If a forager detail met up with one of these Johnny detachments, the Foragers would have their hands full. In fact in many cases foraging groups were either captured or reportedly wiped out (sometimes after surrender) by these Confederate cavalrymen. However assuming a detail got to the farms safely, they would do the crux of their job.
Upon arriving at a farm, the Foragers would take care of themselves first. They would usually round up food for themselves and put one of the fairer sex inhabitants of the farm to work cooking a meal for them. While their meal was being cooked they would go about the business.
of finding the provisions for their comrades. Any wagons and mules of the plantation would be rounded up and the provisions loaded up. Animals would either be shot (a risky enterprise for it risked drawing attention of Johnnies in the area) or butchered on the spot. The meat then of course would be put on the wagons or mules. Many times these foragers would take the opportunity to raid the house (contrary to orders) and take everything they could carry off. The taking from houses of food, valuables, and even clothes seems to rank among the house burnings with the most notorious actions committed by the Foragers. Of course when their meal was ready the bummers would stop what they were doing and fill their bellies as they had filled their mules & wagons.
Of course many of the civilians would not be so forth-coming in the location of their valuables & provisions. They would simply bury their valuables. Many would have a slave haul the mules off to the swamp & do all they could to hide provisions from Sherman's men. Women would often resort to placing valuables and other things worth saving under them in their seat, correctly surmising that the Federals wouldn't dare move the women to search. However other hiding places were usually discovered by Federals who became wise to the ploys. Some of the inhabitants even wondered as to this ability of the Federals to sniff out the hiding places. However when particularly defiant inhabitants would be less then forthcoming with where their provisions were, Federals would often resort to trickery. A typical exchange:
Forager: Where is your Bacon? Civilian: Did not raise any. Forager: Where is the Corn meal? Civilian: Got none. Forager: Where's your horses and mules? Civilian: runoff or got confiscated. Forager: Got nothing? Civilian: No.
To this the forager would respond " Since you don't have anything you can no longer live here obviously". The federal would then give orders to burn the house and outbuildings. This of course would spook the civilians into revising just what he had on the plantation and what he didn't. Anything they owned would quickly be shown to the yanks then. Of course many times their outbuildings would be burnt anyway. Another method would of course be the time honored threat of violence to an inhabitant.
After their collecting of supplies, the foragers would then make their way back to their respective commands. Of course many times when the house and outbuildings were of no more use to the foragers, they would set fire to the buildings. There were of course times when groups would literally come in back to back to forage from farms. After one detachment would leave, another would come trotting in. If the first group didn't burn the houses and buildings, these of course might.
Some of course were spared. But many others torched. The foragers whether they be the first group to hit the farm or last of course would leave out back to their commands after they were through with the farms. It was then the foragers would head out. Their ability to return to their commands would determine if their comrades would eat well that night or not. In some cases they would not make their way back to their regiment until the next day. This would of course mean their comrades would spend a night with as little as a single hardtack cracker for food."
