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| The last steer. |
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the army, kindled at intervals to light the way, making them nearer together in woods and swamps than elsewhere.
Even then these drovers often had a thorny and difficult path to travel in picking their way through underbrush and brambles.
Such a herd got its living off the country in the summer, but not in the winter.
It was a sad sight to see these animals, which followed the army so patiently, sacrificed
one after the other until but a half-dozen were left.
When the number had been reduced to this extent, they seemed to realize the fate in store for them, and it often took the butcher some time before he could succeed in facing one long enough to shoot him. His aim was at the curl of the hair between the eyes, and they would avert their lowered heads whenever he raised his rifle, until, at last, his quick eye brought them to the ground.
From the manner in which I have spoken of these herds, it may be inferred that there was a common herd for the whole army; but such was not the case.
The same system prevailed here as elsewhere.
For example, when the army entered the Wilderness with three days rations of hard
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