Prepare for winter.
It is undoubtedly true, that the sufferings of our soldiers have been greater from sickness during the past summer, than from the enemy.
The list of killed and wounded does not compare with that of those who have fallen or been disabled by disease.
In most cases, the mala dies from which our brave men have suffered, have been the result of a change of life and climate, of food badly cooked, and of inadequate provisions against the heat of the sun and the changes of the weather.
A more trying season than summer to Southern constitutions is now close at hand, one to which the
Northern constitution is adapted, and which, as it exists in
Virginia, is not considered rigorous to men who have passed their lives amid the deep snows and biting blasts of the
North.
We must be getting our soldiers ready for the winter, or all that they have suffered during this season will be ease and healthfulness in comparison.
We believe that with the training our volunteers now possess, and habituated as they have been to their present mode of life, they can go through a winter's campaign with scarcely any sickness or suffering, if timely and efficient preparations are now made for their comfort and protection.
The winter is a more salubrious season than summer to men who are suitably clad and defended against the inclemencies of the season.
Now, then, is the time to provide warm and comfortable clothing for our brave soldiery.
All that our volunteers need — blankets, flannel shirts, thick clothing, woolen stockings, strong shoes, stout overcoats, and other articles which soldiers require for a winter's campaign — should be ready by the first or middle of October.
For this purpose, we look to the active aid of every man and the personal labor of every woman in the
Southern States.
Every man, who has not volunteered for the war, should volunteer the largest contribution he can give for the preservation and efficiency of those who are fighting for his property and home as much as for their own; and every woman — but God bless
them--we need not invoke them to perform any act that requires effort and self-sacrifice in this cause.
Everywhere, over the whole
South, they are at work, nursing the sick and making clothing for the soldiers.
All that is required now, is to give their labor the right direction.
Let them begin now to make up the articles for winter clothing, and lot their husbands, brothers and sons give every dollar they can to this sacred object.
If every dollar in the
South is given to the good cause, it will be wisely, as well as patriotically, bestowed; for, if through neglect or penuriousness, our brave defenders are stricken down, confiscation will seize, despoil and beggar every man in the
South who has anything to be seized and plundered.
