[4V50 Gary]

Post battle looting can be rewarding - if you find something useful. Here's the story of one cavalryman who struck gold and an artilleryman who struck out.

Nearly all the wreckage was strewn on the west side of the pike, yet we found one wagon on the east side that was standing with the fore wheels in a deep impassable ditch. When we got to it a lone cavalryman was standing in the hind part of the wagon, pounding on a barrel head with a tone. Our first conclusions were that the barrels contained pickled pork, and awaited patiently the cavalryman's successful assault in gaining access to its contents, as a good chunk of pickled pork would have been a very acceptable and highly appreciated prize, for my external haversack was entirely empty and the internal one almost in the same fix. It did not take long for our gallant beating cavalryman to "strike ile." When I heard the barrel head splash into something liquid the delighted cavalryman exclaimed, "Whiskey, by George!" and I saw him bow down a willing worshiper at this lowly shrine of Bacchus, and he sampled without cup or canteen mirth inspiring contents of a full barrel. There were ten barrels in the wagon. I did not want any to be joyful on an empty stomach, I had no canteen, my twenty minutes' leave of absence had about expired, and the rosy glow of fading twilight was fast changing into the sable shades of the night, so I struck a bee-line for the battery, with nothing but four blue coats that I had no use for.