The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1862-10-24
An Inside View of Lees Army.
NAKEDNESS AND STARVATION IMPENDING
SUPPLIES EXPECTED FROM MARYLAND BUT
NOT FORTHCOMING.

a correspondent of the Savannah Re
publican, who is with Lees army, writes
from Winchester, Virginia, on the 26th
ult., that he was not at all prepared for
the hardships that army had experienced
since it left the Rappahannock, and that
he could recall no parallel instance in his
tory, except Napoleon's disastrous retreat
from Moscow, where an army had done
more marching and fighting, under such
great disadvantages, than Lees. During
a whole month the army had not four
days rest. One-ffth of the men were
barefooted, one-half in rags, and the whole
half famished. The country though which
they were passing was desolated, and the
transportation was insufficient to keep the
army supplied, and when provision trains
arrived the men seldom had time to cook,
and many of them had left their cooking
utensils behind.
1t was not unusual to see company of
starving men have a barrel of flour dis
tributed to them, which they could not
make into bread. No army on this con-
tinent, continues the writer, has ever suf-
fered so much as the army of Northern
Virginia within the last three months. But
their past trials are hardly worth naming
in comparison with the sufferings in store
for winter, unless the people in the Con-
tederate States everywhere and in whatev-
er circumstances come to its immediate re-
lief. He says ''the men must have cloth
ing and shoes this winter They must
have something to cover themselves when
sleeping, and protect themselves from the
driving sleet and snow storms when on du-
ty. This must be done through friends at
home, should have to wear cotton and sit
by the fire.
1t is not necessary to counsel violent
measures but it is not expected that any
person will be permitted to accumulate
leather and cloth for purposes of specula-
ton. 1t was hoped that we might obtain
winter supplies in Maryland. This hope
was born after the army left Richmond,
and has now miserably persisted. The gov
eminent is unable to furnish these supplies,
for they are not to be had in this country.
If it had exercised little foresight last
spring and summer, when vessels were
running the blockade with cargoes of
calico, linen, and other articles of like i'm
portance, a partial supply, at least, of hats,
blankets, shoes and wooden goods might
have been obtained from England But
foresight is quality of the mind that is
seldom put in practice in these days.
But whatever may be done by the peo-
pie, should be done Immediately Not one
moment can be lost that will not be marked,
as by the second hand of watch, with the
pangs of sufferer. Already the hills and
valleys in this high latitude have been
visited by frost, and the nights are uncom-
fortably cool to the man who sleeps on the
ground
If the army Of Virginia could march
through the South, just as it dragged
and almost barefooted and hatless-many
of the men limping along, and not quite
well of their wounds and sickness, yet
cheerful and not willing to abandon their
places in the ranks-their clothes riddled
with balls, their banners covered with the
smoke and dust of battle, and shot into
tatters, many of them inscribed with
Williamsburg, "Gaines' MILL" Gear
nett's Farm, - % Front Royal" Mellow
ell, "Cedar Run," and other victorious
fields-if this army Of veterans, thus clad
and shod, with tattered uniforms and ban
ners, could march from Richmond to the
Mississippi, it would produce sensation
that has no parallel in history, since Peter
the Hermit led his swelling hosts across
Europe to the rescue of the Holy Sc
pulchre. . .....
do not write to create an alarm, or to
produce a sensation, but to arouse the peO-
pie to a sense of the true candition of the
army. have yet to learn that anything
is to be gained by suppressing the truth,
and leaving the army to suffer. Ii must
withhold the truth when the necessities OF
the service require it to be spoken, | am
quite ready to return home. -t sa
1t was rnmored in Havana that the
$780," and thirteen other rebel war YES