“I feel very much like starting home,” 57th North Carolina Private James Zimmerman wrote on August 16, 1863, “sometimes when I get about half enough to eat and get to studying how thing is going on there it maeks me feel like some body was to blam[e] and not me[.] I am inocent of having anything to do to bring on this ware and dont feel rite suffering here as I do on account of some bodys misdoings.”

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in Civil War Times magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

That type of sentiment is not usually associated with Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, one of America’s most storied and revered fighting units, which is often lauded for its “invincible” spirit and ability to carry on against all odds. The reality was, however, that the morale of Lee’s veterans went up and down and their zest for the war effort could wane. Many of Lee’s men experienced a particularly low point once they crossed the Potomac River back into the Old Dominion after Gettysburg. In July and August 1863, straggling and desertion spiraled out of control among the Confederates desperate for clothes, shoes and regular rations.

Lee worried that his officers were losing control of their men, and on July 26 he ordered all soldiers to return to their regiments immediately. “To remain at home in this the hour of our country’s need,” Lee proclaimed, “is unworthy the manhood of a Southern soldier….While you proudly boast that you belong to the Army of Northern Virginia, let it not be said that you deserted your comrades in a contest in which everything you hold dear is at stake.” Even though Lee’s order signified that deserters, if caught, would face stern measures, unauthorized absences continued in large numbers for at least two more months.

Getting to the heart of why Lee’s army nearly collapsed after the Pennsylvania raid is complicated and requires that numerous issues be taken into account. Were Confederate soldiers and civilians despondent after the defeat or resilient? Lee’s rank and file expressed a wide range of reactions, making it impossible to generalize about their feelings. It is imperative, however, to look beyond the attitudes of the officer class and enlisted men from privileged families to discover the “true spirit” of the Army of Northern Virginia. Looking at soldiers who came from limited means, who were minimally educated, and whose actions and words rarely surface in the historical record allows us to understand their daily strategies for survival.

Zimmerman and William Wagner both served as privates in the 57th North Carolina and are excellent examples of soldiers who existed on the margins of the army. Their criticisms of the war stand in sharp contrast to accounts in period newspapers, sermons and other official proclamations that offered cheery views of the Confederate situation after Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg.

To understand Wagner’s and Zimmerman’s negativity, it helps to examine how they were living in the field. After Gettysburg, Lee’s logistical network virtually collapsed, and the men of the 57th, like so many other units, incurred crushing hardships when they re-entered Virginia. The physical demands of the Pennsylvania Campaign and the retreat through the Shenandoah Valley had exhausted the survivors. To make matters worse, they participated in a series of punishing forced marches at the end of July across the Blue Ridge Mountains.

During one of those excursions, Zimmerman wrote that “I did not eat anything in four days and marched all the time thowing up all the water I drank[.] I was so weak I could hardly stand.” Zimmerman pleaded with the doctor to excuse him from the ranks, but the physician refused to exempt Zimmerman from carrying his musket and accouterments, leading the North Carolinian to bitterly conclude: “they [are] going as hard as they could go[.] it is no wonder…[that] so many [are] comeing home the way they are treeted here[.] A man can eat all he gets for a days rashens at one meal.”

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to