Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 11.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[436] have been in the Tennessee army since last November and can truly say during the whole of that time the stock of my command has not been half fed. In some instances the horses going for two days at a time without anything to eat. Rotten corn, half rations at that, with no fodder in December and January. Full rations of corn and one pound of fodder, sometimes, (bad at that) in February and March.

I have just received a good lot of horses, which I cannot keep in condition unless I get something to feed them on. I have my horses as well groomed and otherwise cared for as can be, but good grooming and other necessary attention will not feed them. Corn alone will not keep horses in condition; they will not eat rations of corn if no long feed is furnished. Horses fed with corn alone are more liable to disease, and in fact cannot be kept healthy.

It is a shame to drain the country of horses and then starve them. It cripples the resources of the country without any good, which no one has a right to do. If this system of starvation was unavoidable I would not complain, but when the whole of middle and southern Georgia is full of fodder, the tax in kind actually rotting along the line of the principal railroad accessible to the army, what reason is there that feed cannot be furnished in abundance. I have seen with my own eyes hundreds and thousands of bales of good fodder actually rotting for want of attention. Where's the fault?

The quarter-masters say short transportation. This cannot be, for if it be so, then it is an acknowledgment at once that the Grand Army of Tennessee cannot be fed. Is it absolutely necessary in order to feed this army to have a railroad? Pshaw! How were armies fed before the day of railroads? Hoping that something will be done to properly supply our wants, I remain

Yours &c.,

Endorsement.

Respectfully forwarded. The horses of this battalion are as well groomed and attended to as is possible, all the officers being fully