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00000174-b11b-ddc3-a1fc-bfdbb1a20000The Schreiner University Department of History is honoring the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War with a series of short vignettes focusing on events from 1861 through 1865. The Civil War was the most destructive conflict in American history, but it was also one of our most defining moments as a people and as a nation. Let us know what you think about "This Week in the Civil War." E-mail your comments to Dr. John Huddleston at jhuddles@schreiner.edu.Airs: Weekdays at 5:19 a.m., 8:19 a.m., 4:19 p.m. on KTXI and 4:49 a.m., 9:29 p.m. on KSTX.

This Week in the Civil War - 752

Foraging to supplement an army’s meager supplies was, as William Tecumseh Sherman reputedly once said, a “right as old as history.”  While in the field or encamped during the winter when fresh vegetables were scarce, foraging was a practice employed by both the Union and the Confederacy during the American Civil War. 

Both armies often took what they believed they needed from the local populace and frequently paid in IOUs which were never redeemed.   Southerners in Union dominated regions especially despised Yankee foragers.  Sometimes Confederates who captured Union foraging details executed the unfortunate Federals. 

Such fortunately was not the case on Friday, January 22, 1864 for a Union foraging party which was captured, surrendering several wagons of goods, near Wilsonville, Tennessee.  Other Union foragers would not be so lucky.