MONTGOMERY WEEKLY ADVERTISER, October 8, 1862, p. 1, c. 3

Destitution in our Army.

Army correspondents and others, familiar with the condition of our army, represent some of our regiments as being in a desperate condition for clothes. In the late battle of Manassas, one hundred men of the 20th Georgia regiment, are said to have went [sic] into the action, and actually stormed a battery barefooted. A correspondent, who was an eye witness of the scene, says that the macadamized road over which our poor fellows charged, was profusely marked with the blood from bruised, bare feet of whole regiments. Only think of our soldiers going barefooted, charging over the flinty surface of a macadamized road, marking their course with their blood, while thousands of sleek speculators, who have been industriously buying up all the leather in the country, and creating other monopolies calculated to drive the destitute families of these poor barefooted soldiers to privation and want, are wearing their $20 calf skin boots and resting at night on the downy beds of ease! Is there no remedy for this monstrous evil? Must our soldiers continue to battle for our country's freedom half naked, while thousands of able-bodied young men are permitted to remain at home, it would seem, for the express purpose of oppressing their indigent families? Is ours a speculator's government or is it a government of the people? Why are vampires and blood-suckers protected in their infamous villainy, whilst those who stand a living wall between us and our5 enemies are permitted to go barefooted and their families allowed to suffer for the common necessaries of life?—Columbus Sun, 29th.