Officer "rubbing"

No, I'm not segueing into some kind of paraphilia discussion but rather a strange form of Civil War camp entertainment I just read about in Confederate "Tales of the War" in the Trans-Mississippi, Part Four: 1864. From Winter Camp to Pleasant Hill and Jenkins' Ferry edited by Michael & Brenda Banasik. One evening during the 1863-64 winter interlude, a large number of enlisted men from Frost's Brigade of Sterling Price's army grabbed their officers (even the brigade's temporary commander General Thomas Drayton) and, pinning them against nearby trees, commenced roughly rubbing them up and down over the bark. Apparently, the victims were not well pleased by what happened to them but all charges related to this odd breach in discipline were later dropped.  Weird, huh? What happens in a Civil War camp stays in a Civil War camp but I don't recall encountering officer "rubbing" before.