Oliver Otis Howard, Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard, major general , United States army : volume 2

[129] help me put down these nefarious proceedings, and to arrest perpetrators.

Please furnish to every inspector, provost marshal, and officer in charge of a foraging party, a copy of this letter, and enjoin them to be on the watch to stop these infamous transactions, and to bring to justice the individuals who commit them.

A physician, Dr. Greene, came to me and said: “General, would you allow your men to take a man's watch?” “No,” I answered, “you know that I would not.” “But,” he replied, “a man took mine.” “Please describe him, doctor,” I said. “Oh, I can't do that, they're all alike,” was the reply. The doctor's daughter, however (a girl of twelve or thirteen), said, “I can, father.” She then described the man and I called my provost marshal, who soon found the thief and brought him to me. The watch was given back to the owner and I ordered the man drummed out of the army.

A little later at Cheraw, I had three or four others of these unscrupulous villains apprehended, and publicly and summarily punished One had taken a costly ring from a lady's finger by force; and the others had been caught, in flagrante delicto, pilfering from women's bureaus and closets. Soldiers in general were obliged to forage on the country but they did not enjoy the reputation or wish for the company of thieves and robbers.

The first day we had a comparatively short march along the railroad running northward. Sherman's camp was at Winsboro at the end of the second day, while mine was at Harrison's Crossroads. From that point I turned to the right to cross the upper waters of the Catawba. Sherman wrote from Winsboro: