Grim Living Sitatutions

As displayed in several of the personal accounts above, the deficiency of military equipment, clothing, shelter, and most importantly, food, took a major toll on the morale of Confederate soldiers fighting in the Western part of the state. Within the 25^th North Carolina Troops, numerous individuals describe the horrors they were forced to endure during wartime.[1] The role that harsh conditions played on the number of desertions in the Confederate army made its greatest impact during the last winter of the Civil War. One Confederate soldier in particular gives insight to the “shelter” used to protect him and others during the winter months. “Our winter quarters were made up of barrels, boxes, or any other material that could be had, and held in place with daubs of mud”.[2] In order to protect themselves from incoming fire, Confederate soldiers often remained in trenches they had dug for quite some time, and the majority of them were barefoot.[3] During the winter of 1864-1865, General Johnson writes to the federal government:

 “I would call to your attention to the fact that there are a number of barefooted men in this command. The inspector-general of the army inspected Ransom’s brigade some 10 days or two weeks since, took down the number of barefooted men, and promised shoes, but they have not been furnished”. [4]

            Not only Johnson, but other generals in the 25^th regiment wrote to high officials expressing their desperation for food, and stated that the lack of nourishment and payments were the leading cause for the dissatisfaction among soldiers who opted to desert.[5] Confederate soldiers were left without proper shelter to protect them during the freezing winter, and also had to undergo the dwindling rations that the army supplied them. One other soldier in the 25^th regiment writes to his wife saying “I was hungry, so hungry that I thanked God that I had a backbone for my stomach to lean up against”. [6]A “meal” would consist of as little as a pint of corn meal, and a few ounces of meat, that was often served raw.[7] These men would march several miles a day through strenuous mountains in either the blistering hot or freezing cold; thus, their energy level would be shot due to lack of nourishment.[8] After being forced to walk, Confederate soldiers were often given the task of shoveling ditches or trenches for protection, which would cause many to pass out due to exhaustion and starvation.[9] General Lee describes how his men hadn’t eaten in three days, and were constantly exposed to the winter terrain.[10] Not only were these men slowly losing what little strength they had left, Confederate soldiers were losing their courage as well. The situation is summed up perfectly in a letter from the Secretary of War John C. Breckenridge to President Davis:

“The army pay is in arrear for several months-this is an excuse for desertion, the sale of clothing, equipment’s, and munitions by the soldiers…Throughout the whole country discontent and discredit have arisen from the failure to pay for supplies of food and animals that have been impressed…It is plainly impracticable for this Department to carry on any of its operations under such condition of things.” [11]  

Confederate soldiers in Western North Carolina were underfed, underpaid, left in the cold, and expected to fight without shoes on their feet or a weapon in their hands. Adding to the personal reasons on the home front for deserting, Confederate soldiers found that desertion was the only outlet to alleviate their suffering. Soldiers that had been conscripted or joined after switching from Union ideologies were already prime candidates for desertion, based on the fact that they had literally been dragged into the army. For an army to force individuals to fight for their cause, and in return not even give them the basic necessities for proper survival seems to make desertion inevitable for these men. If the Confederate army wished for men to fully commit to their cause and fight for the south properly, then they should have seen to it that their funding was enough to pay their soldiers, and provide them with all the tools needed to be healthy and protected. The Confederate army failed these men, thus, in return, the soldiers that deserted failed their country.