Instead of pausing till the rest of the army came up, the soldiers lightened themselves by throwing away their knapsacks and haversacks; and extending their ranks so as to show an equal front with the enemy, pushed on to the attack of the second line.
"The Campaigns of the British Army at Washington and New Orleans 1814-1815"
G. R. Gleig
Shattered rifles, bits of harness, haversacks, machine-gun belts, trench helmets, sand-bags, barbed wire-nothing escapes the Salvage Corps.
"Italy at War and the Allies in the West"
E. Alexander Powell
9,000 26,000 It seems, therefore, entirely fair to say that Van Dorn had at least double Curtis's 10,000 when he left Cove Greek on the morning of March 4, with three days' cooked rations in his men's haversacks, and the intention of destroying the invaders and recovering the State of Missouri.
"The Struggle for Missouri"
John McElroy