William W. Bennett, A narrative of the great revival which prevailed in the Southern armies during the late Civil War

[198] pitched battle of the war at Sharpsburg, and then recrossed the Potomac back into Virginia. During all this time, covering the full space of a month, the troops rested but four days! And let it always be remembered to their honor, that of the men who performed this wonderful feat one-fifth of them were barefooted, one-half of them in rags, and the whole of them half-famished. The country from the Rappahannock to the Potomac had been visited by the enemy with fire and sword, and our transportation was insufficient to keep the army supplied from so distant a base as Gordonsville; and when the provision trains would overtake the army, so pressing were the exigencies of their position the men seldom had time to cook. Their difficulties were increased by the fact that their cooking utensils, in many cases, had been left behind, as well as everything else that would impede their movements. It was not unusual to see a company of starving men have a barrel of flour distributed to them, which it was utterly impossible for them to convert into bread with the means and the time allowed to them. They could not procure even a piece of plank, or a corn or flour sack, upon which to work up their dough.

No army on this continent has ever accomplished as much, or suffered as much, as the army of Northern Virginia within the last three months. At no period during the first Revolutionary war — not even at Valley Forge-did our forefathers in arms encounter greater hardships, or endure them more uncomplainingly.

If the Army of Virginia could march through the South just as it is-ragged and almost barefooted and hatless-many of the men limping along and not quite well of their wounds or sickness, yet cheerful and not willing to abandon their places in the ranks-their clothes riddled with balls, and their banners covered with the smoke and dust of battle, and shot into tatters, many of them inscribed “Williamsburg,” “Seven Pines,” “Gaines' ”