The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-02-05

wants OF the army, as it now stands,
at prices ruinous to the credit of the
government. Oonscript the entire white
population within the ages of eighteen
and fifty, constitute q reserve corps of the
lads between fifteen and eighteen, and the
men between fifty and sixty, abolish all
details for teamsters, ambulance drivers,
hospital assistants, and fill the vacancy
created with negroes and mulattoes Gam
pie allowance being made for places that
could be filed by disabled soldiers) and it
is easy to conceive what the consequence
will be upon agricultural production. The
sum is not finished yet. Horses must be
fed as well as men, and an army without
horses is man without limbs. With very
great difficulty horses barely sufficient to
serve the purposes of the existing army
are obtained. Last spring large impress
ments of horses were made in the city and
throughout Virginia. It was matter of
doubt whether the hack, carriage, dray,
cart and, indeed, all the horses in the
city, not indispensably necessary to the
business of the government should not be
seized. The question of horse feed was
serious indeed. With one hand the Con-
federate officers seized the horses of
the citizens aud with the other seized
forage of all sorts from the people
in the country, to feed them with.
Farmers ceased to send hay, fodder, oats
and corn to town. To send was to insure
impressment. During the winter Stuart's
cavalry had been scattered over all the
State to procure food and to recruit. The
absence Of HamptOn's Legion and the
wOrn-down condition of the remainder of
Stuart's horses, enabled the enemy to PEN
citrate with impunity within the defenses
of the capital. And even now, when the
harvests have been gathered but few
weeks the quartermaster of the Army of
Northern Virginia can tell a strange story
of the distance which their forage has to
traverse before it reaches them. Yet it is
proposed to double the army, and of course
to increase the trains proportionately.
Still another addition to the sum must be
made. An army must have, besides wag-
Ons and trains, muskets, cannon and am
munitiOn. PembertOn's enormous losses
of the two former at Bakers creek and
Vicksburg, added to Bragg's, at Chatta-
nooga, and Lees losses of muskets at Get
tysburg and in the retreat, must have left
a bare sufficiency of both to supply present
needs and to make good the annual wear
and tear. With regard to ammunition,
we know what Lee suffered at Gettysburg
for want of it. We know further,
that whenever battle begins, ordnance
officers are sure to telegraph for more am
munition. We have never had a super
abundance, and since the port of Charles
ton has been closed, Wilmington almost
Theoretically sealed, and the nitre beds of
Tennessee have been wrested from us, it
is not likely that we ever will have more
than full supply for the army on it's pres
ent footing. 1t may be said that we have
a whole winter before US in which to make
guns, and cannon, and powder, ad Abituan.
So we had last winter, with comparatively
open ports, through which to draw sup
plies from abroad. Yet Lee fell short in
Pennsylvania, and Richmond was so bare
that cartridges had to be taken from the
boxes Of a portion of the city troops to
fill his own with. Yet next spring, we
are to have twice, perhaps thrice as many
men in the field as we had last spring,
with thrice as many muskets, thrice
the number of cannon, and thrice the need
for ammunition. Thus, in the last anal
ysis, We find we have an army poorly clad,
scantily fed, indifferently equipped, badly
mounted, with insufficient trains, and
with barely enough ammunition. To
remedy this evil we are going to double,
and, if possible, to quadruple the number
of men and horses, taking away every eff
ficient master from the agricultural dis
tricts, and leave the laborer, on whom
both men and horses depend for existence,
prey to natural idleness, and with every
inducement to revolt If this be not judi
cial madness, the history OF desperate
measures adopted by feeble and affrighted
councils does not present an example.