General Sherman’s not so elite corps of special forces — The Bummers, American Civil War

General Sherman’s not so elite corps of special forces — The Bummers, American Civil War.In 1864 and 1865 General William Tecumseh Sherman cut a devastating swath through the industrial and agricultural heartland of the South, destroying much of the South’s military, transportation, and communication infrastructure and dooming the Confederacy to defeat.  Throughout Sherman’s March his army of 62,000 destroyed countless factories, lumber mills, railroads, telegraph lines, plantations, and farms.    In fact Sherman’s March from Atlanta Georgia to Savannah, and then through the Carolina’s was so effective that it did more damage to the Confederacy than the past three years of bloody warfare combined.  His opponent, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston once commented “ that there had been no such army in existence since the days of Julius Caesar.”The key to Sherman’s campaign was to move very quickly, preventing the Confederate army from responding to his lighting fast attacks.  As a result Sherman’s army traveled with no supply trains, which would only slow down the army and make it vulnerable to Confederate raids.  Sherman’s took only what they could carry.  For supplies his men depending entirely on pillaging Georgia for food, clothing, supplies, and ammunition.  That’s where the bummers came in.During the Civil War a “bummer” was a slang term for any soldier or detail ordered to forage for supplies.  Gen. Sherman would take the bummer to a whole new level, ordering the creation of special units of bummers tasked with pillaging the Georgian countryside to feed the army.  However, Sherman’s bummers were not an elite corps of special forces but rather a mob of marauders.  In fact Sherman’s bummers had much more in common with pirates and thieves and little in common with Green Berets.  Set loose the bummers stripped every plantation, farm, home barn, cellar, and pantry of anything edible or valuable.  While Sherman gave orders that the bummers were to only take what was needed, it is doubtful he cared as his bummers also looted silver, jewelry, fine clothing, and liquor.  The ragtag appearance of a bummer was often comical as he would wear stolen clothing such as expensive top hats, fine silk vests, and gentlemanly frock coats in combination with the standard issue Union uniform.  While having an open license to steal and loot might sound appealing, being a bummer was also very dangerous.  Southerners were horrified by the actions of the bummers, especially after instances of sexual assault, rape, vandalism, and arson.  Unlike other prisoners of war, bummers captured by the enemy were shot dead on the spot.However good, bad, or ragtag they were, Sherman’s March would not have been possible without the thievery of the bummers and throughout the entire campaign his army was well fed on Georgian vittles.  On December 21st his army captured Savannah, one of the most important ports of the Confederacy.   On February 17th, 1865 he captured Columbia, the capital of South Carolina.  By the end of April, the war was over. -- source link

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