From General Lee's army.
[from our own correspondent.]
Army of Northern Virginia,
Jan. 6th, 1864.
Standing on the threshold of the new year, thoroughly imbued with love for our cause, and deeply anxious to contribute according to our humble mite whatever may lie in our power to insure its final success, we have determined, after much reflection, to present the following views, suggested by a sense of our future wants taken in connection with our past experience.
The present duration of the war, and the probability now recognized on all hands of its long continuance, admonish us clearly that it is our bounden duty to place the country upon a war footing for the war. To do this successfully requires at our hands three things--first, a sufficiency of men; secondly, a sufficiency of food; and thirdly, a healthy circulating medium for currency.
In the first place, then, we must have men to carry on the war — i. e., we must have strong battalions, capable of meeting and resisting the enemy's armed hosts.
But, then, in turn, the question of numbers with us must be controlled by our ability to subsist.
Our armies need recruiting, or rather the ranks of those in the field need filling up. How shall this be accomplished?
My answer is ready at hand.
Bring back the absentees, of whom, I will venture, there is to-day not less than fifty per cent. of this army.
I have recently conversed with the commanders of three different brigades on this important question.
One of them told me that in his brigade forty per cent. were absent; another told me that in his brigade forty-five per cent. were absent, another told me that in his brigade forty-five per cent. were absent, and another fifty per cent. Taking the mean of these three statements as the average, it will appear that forty-five per cent of this army is absents from it. The inquiry which very readily presents itself to every one is, where are these men?
I answer that they are at home, detailed as conscript catchers, provost guards, passport clerks, attaches to quartermasters, commissaries, and hospitals, and a very large class are hanging around loose on surgeons' certificates, whilst not a small class are absent without permission or excuse; and yet the names of these men are borne upon the muster rolls of honor of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Ought these things so to be?
Can they not be remedied?
I believe they can. To begin; the present conscript organization of the State of Virginia is a positive nuisance.--The men who are thus engaged so contrive that the duty of collecting conscripts shall be incidental to their private duties rather than the public business of their lives.
The sooner, then, all those who are thus engage shall be relieved and returned to their commands the better for the army and the country.
Return all the Provost guards to their several commands, and bring out the 45 to 50 class of men and give them this sort of duty to perform.--Improve our legislation so as to lessen the power of surgeons in granting and extending furloughs for sickness and disability.
This, however, looks to vigorous measures, measures calculated to operate upon the fears rather than appealing to the better qualities of men's natures.
There ought to be established at once by Congress a system of rewards for brave and meritorious acts.
A roll of honor, or some distinguishing badge, that would tell as the faithful soldier passed on the highways, "there goes a soldier who, though clad in dingy garments and cutting but a poor figure in dress, has yet deserved well of his country.
In the camp, on the march, in the bivouac, or it may be when the battle has raged hottest and the missiles of death rained thickest."This army would be a new machine by the passage of such a law, and every man here would then exert himself to be a hero in the strife.
Shame upon Congress, that thus far there has been no such legislation, and eternal honor to our glorious dead who sleep in neglected private graves, and our brave and faithful soldiers that, though their country has never remembered them, yet that they have never forgotten or been recreant to their country. "Better late than never," would be a good motto for Congress.
Let them order from this time forth a system of rewards and medals, that when the strife of battle is o'er, the soldier, in his rags and his poverty, may point to the proofs of his patriotism and valor, and tell his children, though I leave you penniless in money, you are yet rich in the legacy of patriotic self-sacrifice which your ancestry endured.
But I would go a step farther.
There are in this army, I should suppose, not less than four thousand able-bodied white men, capable of making excellent soldiers, who are acting as teamsters and ambulance drivers.
Why cannot the places of these men be filled by colored persons and these whites restored to their commands for the duties of the field?
I am satisfied if these suggestions are observed, and the substitute law is rigidly enforced, that this army of Northern Virginia will be strong enough in the coming spring for any work that it may be legitimately expected to accomplish.
Officers who have served in the army of Tennessee tell me that all I have said in this particular applies with equal force to that army.
I cannot believe that there is a necessity for taking the men above fifty, or the boys under eighteen, to swell the ranks of our regular army, because I am satisfied that the present conscript law, if properly enforced, will give us a sufficiency of men; and as for a "reserved" force, it means nothing else than harassing the people of the State without any practical good results, whilst the withdrawal of so large a force of labor, and superintendence of labor, at such a time as the planting season, may seriously impair our prospects for summer and fall crops; and to take from the schools the boys under eighteen will be practically to close the school-houses, and to bring up in grossest ignorance the rising generation — the future occupiers and rulers of the soil.
Another remark, and I have done.
Three years of this war are practically at an end, and we are stronger, relatively, in men under arms, than we have ever been, whilst the North is comparatively weaker in soldiers; but it cannot be denied, I think, that bread and meat is scarier than at the beginning of the war. Does not common sense, then, teach that we should husband our resources of men and stimulate production?
This year may be the last of the war. If so, God be praised and thanked; but, if it should not be, let us forecast and ask what must be our condition if a sweeping army bill is passed?
Let us not, in a fit of passion, or in order to reach a few, so legislate as to injure the whole, but rather let us rely upon wise laws, and their right administration, sanctioned by Heaven for success, than to spasmodic and class legislation, to carry us through the perils that environ us.
One word more and I have done, for I shall submit no observations on the currency for the reason that I am not enough of a financier to say anything that would be valuable.
That closing remark is this: I beg Congress to make no effort to disturb the present organization of the army.
If they should, my word for it, the consequences will be disastrously fatal.
In some instances, changes could be made for the better, but taken as a whole this army could not be better officered than it is.--My own impression is that, whilst a few discontented spirits here and there may desire a change, the army will be satisfied with its present organizations.
The sooner Congress passes the military bill the better.
It will end speculation as to its action, and all will know what they will have to rely upon. Jan. 6th, 1864.
X.
