, 1864-01-26

! e,sy to see what the consequence viii be
| mon gricu1 turM production
! lhe sum is not. finished Jet ,.Horses'must
+! be frd rs we'll as men, ard IN army With
! out horses is q man without limbs. With
very great difficulty horses, barely SUN lelent
obtained Last Spring large imPressmeuts
4 :orscs were made tntn1s City and through
on .Virginia~ 1T ;.Wass a: matter :, Of doubt
whether the hack, carriage, dray, cart, and,
; indeed, all tie horses II the city not indis-
perfahly necessary to! the business Of the
Government should not be seized Tie ques-
tion of horse feed was serious indeed with
one hand tlla Confederate officials seized the
horses Of the citizens and with; the other
seized forage Of oil sorts from the people in
The country to feed them With. :,
Farmers ceased to send hay, oats and corn
to:town; To: send vas to insure Impress
ment. During the winter, ,Stuart's. cavalry
| had been scattered over the State to procure
+ food md to recruit The absence Of Hump
TOMS Legion and the worn down condition
Of the remainder Of Stnart's horse, enabled
tie enemy to penetrate with impunity with
In the detenees Of the capitol, And cvcn now,
when the harycsts have been gathered but 4
fen: weeks, the Quartermasters Of the army
Of Northern Virginia can tell a strange story
Of the distance which their forage has to trl-
: verse before It reaches them. Yet 1t Is pro-
posed to double the army, and Of course to
Increase the trims rroportionately.
: Still another addition to tho sum must be
made An army must have, besides wagons
aud trains, muRkets, cannon and ammuui-
ton. Penn berton'B enormous losses Of the
two former al: Bakers Creek and VickBburg,
added to Bragg's at Chattanooga and Lees
Losses Of muskets Ut Gettysburg and in the
retreat, must have left bare sutacioncy 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 fur
ther, that whenever battle begins, ordnance.
officers are sure to telegraph for more am1nu-
milton. We have never had q superabund-
ance, and since the port Of Charleston has
been cioseo, Wilmington almost hermetic-
ally sealed, and the inter beds Of Tennessee
have been wrcstcd from US, It; is not likely
that We ever Will have moro titan a: full sup
Ply for tue army on its present: footing. =.
It may be said that We have whole winter.
before US u Which to make guns, cannon and
powder ad HtituM. So we lad last winter,
with comparatively open ports through which
to draw supplies from abroad Yet Lee fell
short in pennsylvania, and Richmond was 30
btrc that cartridges bad to be taken from the
boxes Of portion Of the city troops to fiji:
his own with. Yet next spring we are to
have twice, perhaps thrice as many men in
the field us We Ind lust spring, with thrice as
many muskcts, thrice the number of cannon,
and thrice the need Of ammunition!:' ri: -
Thus, in the last analysis, We find we hare
IN army poorly clad, scantily fed, Indifferent
trains, and with barely enough ammunition.
TO remedy the evil, we are going to double,
and If possible quadrup1e the number of men
and horses, taking away every efficient mas
ter from the agricultural districts, and leave
the laborers on whom both men and horses
depend for existence, q prey to natural idle
pess, and with every lnducement to reYo(t.
T this bo nos judicial madncgu, the history Of
af1rjghted councils do not present m example.