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rifled from garret to cellar. Took all our blankets and all clothes, all our silver and knives and forks, all our luxuries, leaving nothing but a little meat and corn. They threatened life repeatedly and one ruffian galloped up to the door and pulled out his matches to fire the house. Oh! it was terrible beyond description. It seems ever present to my mind. One night they strung fire all around us and we took up the children and dressed them and watched all night fearing the fire might consume our dwelling.
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The designation "bummers" was used, both by soldiers and civilians, to describe
Sherman's soldiers, official and unofficial, who "requisitioned" food from Southern homes along the route of the Army's march. Often highly destructive in nature, bummers became notorious among Southerners for looting and
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the day before, and at 9 oâclock Sunday morning, a party of raiders rushed in upon our peaceful home. They pillaged and plundered the whole day and quartered upon that night and staid until 5 oâclock Monday evening. Some part of the time there were at least three different parties. The house was
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was successfully defending its territory on all fronts. The bummers' activities in
Georgia and the Carolinas helped ensure that the South would be unable to sustain its war effort; additionally, bummers' destruction of industrial property rendered the garrisoning of southern cities largely
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said that in "this rollicking picnic expedition there was just enough of fighting for variety, enough of hardship to give zest to the repose which followed it, and enough of ludicrous adventure to make its memory a constant source of gratification."
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During
Sherman's March to the Sea in the Civil War, General Sherman and his subordinates earned a reputation for destruction and for the lack of discipline of his troops. His marauding stragglers became known as "Sherman's
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called foraging during the
Sherman's raid a "novel feature of Sherman's command . . . organized for a very useful purpose from the adventurous spirits which are always found in the ranks." Another Union General
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unnecessary by destroying most, if not all, of those facilities in their path that replenished the
Confederate war effort (such as cotton gins, farms, foundries, lumber mills, etc.).
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characterized the
Sherman's March as "one great picnic from beginning to endâ with "just enough fighting and danger of fighting to give zest to the experience." Union General
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as a point of personal pride. On May 24, 1865, Shermanâs Army paraded for six hours through the
Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D,C., during the
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Sherman admitted himself after the war that "many acts of pillage, robbery, and violence were committed" by the bummers.
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This day two weeks since, 12 of March was a day of sorrow and confusion never to be forgotten. Shermanâs army reached
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One southern family's encounter with bummers was recorded by North
Carolina resident and Civil War diarist
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The "bummers" and foragers of
Sherman's Army in the Grand Review, Washington D.C., May 24, 1865
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The
Southern portrayal of Sherman's bummers was quite the opposite and was epitomized by
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General W. T. Sherman leading his army at the Grand Review, Washington D.C., May 24, 1865
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Report of the Proceedings of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, Volumes 1-5
328:âForage Liberally on the Countryâ: Shermanâs Troops Forage in the March to the Sea
390:"22. Fake News: Civil War Version â Tales from the Vault: 40 Years / 40 Stories"
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Correspondence between Gen. Sherman and Gen. Hampton regarding foraging parties
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Foragers during Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's 1864 March to the Sea
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Lincoln's Code: The Laws of War in American History, by John Fabian Witt
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411:"Jeff. Davis caught at last. Hoop skirts & Southern chivalry"
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Through the Heart of Dixie: Sherman's March and American Memory
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vandalism, and they did much to shatter the illusion that the
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Jeff Davis Caught at Last: Hoop Skirts and Southern Chivalry
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Shermanâs veterans appropriated the belittling title
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A United States military education resource states:
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Grand Review of the Union Armies on May 23â24, 1865
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23:Shermanâs troops foraging on a Georgia plantation
374:History shows examples of failure to discipline
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462:Georgia (U.S. state) in the American Civil War
442:Historical Times Encyclopedia of the Civil War
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31:Sherman's bummers foraging in South Carolina
212:] can slide down a Bummer's windpipe."
289:Diary of Mrs. Jane Evans Elliot, 1837-1882
258:Southern Storm: Sherman's March to the Sea
198:, a Union soldier threatens the disguised
472:North Carolina in the American Civil War
467:South Carolina in the American Civil War
291:. Edwards & Broughton Print Company.
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240:. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
125:Jane Evans Elliot, March 25, 1865.
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236:Dictionary of American History
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287:Elliot, Jane Evans (1908).
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357:Remembering Shermanâs Army
54:was a nickname applied to
372:Capt. Christopher Baker.
63:William Tecumseh Sherman
409:Magee, John L. (1865).
190:In American cartoonist
157:Edward Follansbee Noyes
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230:Adams, James Truslow
438:Sherman's "Bummers"
317:, by Anne S. Rubin.
262:. Harper. pp.
252:Trudeau, Noah Andre
153:Henry Warner Slocum
186:In popular culture
170:Gone with the Wind
83:American Civil War
73:and north through
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109:Jane Evans Elliot
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216:References
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204:Duch lunch
67:Union army
181:bummers."
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254:(2009).
232:(1940).
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