A Sanitary Commissioner Meets the Rebs
In a telling narrative, James Gall of the United States Sanitary Commission had the unique opportunity to observe the Confederate army just days before the Battle of Gettysburg. Mr. Gall, advancing in whatever direction contact between the two armies was likely, happened upon units of General Ewell's corps stationed in York, Pennsylvania. He arrived at nine o'clock in the morning on Sunday, June 28, 1863, to discover the Confederate army at rest, breaking camp near the old Fair Grounds.
The following account is from the Rebellion Record, V. 7, pp 122 - 123.
"On entering the town, General Early made a levy upon the citizens, promising in the event of its being complied with promptly, to spare all private property in the city; otherwise he would allow his men to take such things as they needed, and would not be responsible for the conduct of his men while they remained in the city. The beef, flour, and other articles, and twenty-eight thousand dollars in money were speedily collected, and handed over to the rebels. The General expressed himself satisfied with what he had received, and scrupulously kept his word in regard to the safety of private property. Nothing belonging to any citizen was touched; no one was molested in the streets; all was as quiet and orderly as if there were no soldiers there.On Monday the rebels were busy in carting off the levied articles. About four p.m., Gordon's brigade returned from Wrightsville, bringing with them some horses and cattle which they had picked up on the way. They had about eight supply and ammunition wagons, and twelve ambulances with them. Many of the latter were marked U. S. The ambulances were all filled with men. Who had apparently given out on the way. Physically, the men looked about equal to the generality of our own troops, and there were fewer boys among them. Their dress was a wretched mixture of all cuts and colors. There was not the slightest attempt at uniformity in this respect. Every man seemed to have put on whatever he could get hold of, without regard to shape or color. I noticed a pretty large sprinkling of blue pants among them, some of those, doubtless, that were left by Milroy at Winchester. Their shoes, as a general thing, were poor; some of tho men were entirely barefooted. Their equipments were light as compared with those of our men. They consisted of a thin woollen blanket, coiled up and slung from the shoulder in the form of a sash, a haversack slung from the opposite shoulder, and a cartridge-box. The whole cannot weigh more than twelve or fourteen pounds. Is it strange, then, that with such light loads they should be able to make longer and more rapid marches than our men? The marching of the men was irregular and careless; their arms were rusty and ill-kept. Their whole appearance was greatly inferior to that of our soldiers.
"Is it strange, then, that with such light loads they should be able to make longer and more rapid marches than our men?" - James Gall
During Monday I visited the 'Fair Grounds,' as also the camp of a Louisiana brigade, situated about a mile from the city. The supply wagons were drawn up in a sort of straggling hollow square, in the centre of which the men stacked their arms in company lines, and in this way formed their camp. There were no tents for the men, and but very few for the officers. The men were busy cooking their dinner, which consisted of fresh beef, (part of the York levy,) wheat griddle-cakes raised with soda, and cold water. No coffee or sugar had been issued to the men for a long time. The meat was mostly prepared by frying, and was generally very plentifully salted. The cooking is generally done in squads, or messes of five or six, and on the march the labor of carrying the cooking utensils is equally divided among them. The men expressed themselves perfectly satisfied with this kind of food, and said they greatly preferred the bread prepared in the way they do it, to the crackers issued to the Union soldiers. I question if their bread is as healthy and nourishing as the army biscuit. I asked one of the men how he got along without a shelter-tent. His answer was: 'First rate.'
'In the first place,' he said, 'I wouldn't tote one, and in the second place, I feel just as well, if not better, without it. 'But how do you manage when it rains?' I inquired. 'Wall,' said he, 'me and this other man has a gum-blanket atween us; when it rains we spread one of our woollen blankets on the ground to lie on, then we spread the other woollen blanket over us, and the gum blanket over that, and the rain can't tech us.' And this is the way the rebel array (with the exception of a few of the most important officers) sleeps. “‘They are too well fed, too well clothed, and have far too much to carry.’ ”
Everything that will trammel or impede the movement of the army is discarded, no matter what the consequences may be to the men. In conversation with one of the officers, I mentioned about the want of tents in his army, and asked whether any bad effects were apparent from it. He said he thought not. On the contrary, he considered the army in better condition now than ever before. Granting the truth of what the officer said about the condition of the rebel army, I very much doubt the correctness of his conclusions. The present good condition of the rebel army is more likely to be due to the following circumstances: First, the army has been lying still all winter, under good shelter; has been tolerably well fed and clothed, and in this way has had a chance to recuperate after the fatiguing campaigns of last summer. Second, most of the weakly men, who could not stand a day's march without being sent to the rear, have been either discharged or have died, thus leaving a smaller portion of those remaining liable to disease. Third, since that portion of the rebel army (Ewell's corps) moved from behind Fredricksburgh, on the fourth of June last, it has been favored with remarkably fine weather; has been stimulated with almost uninterrupted success in its movements; has been marching through a rich and fertile country, and, by levying on the inhabitants of which, the soldiers have been able to procure an abundance of good wholesome food, better, perhaps, than they had for many months. These, and not the want of tents, are probably the causes which give to the rebel army its present healthy tone. Under ordinary circumstances, I have no doubt the want of shelter would prove rather a detriment to the army than otherwise.
In further conversation with the Louisiana officer, I ascertained that this was the corps which moved down through the Shenandoah Valley, surprised Milroy at Winchester, and was the first to cross the Potomac at Shepherdstown into Maryland. He informed me that his own and the North-Carolina brigade were armed entirely with Enfield rifles taken at Winchester after Milroy's retreat. In speaking of our soldiers, the same officer remarked: 'They are too well fed, too well clothed, and have far too much to carry.' That our men are too well fed I do not believe, neither that they are too well clothed; that they have too much to carry I can very well believe, after witnessing the march of the army of the Potomac to Chancellorsville. Each man had eight days' rations to carry, besides sixty rounds of ammunition, musket, woollen blanket, rubber blanket, overcoat, extra shirt, drawers, socks, and sheltertent, amounting in all to about sixty pounds. Think of men, (and boys too,) staggering along under such a load, at the rate of fifteen to twenty miles a day."