To the Confederates, almost anything was better than nothing. Lee issued very specific orders that everything was to be paid for, albeit in Confederate paper money, which was worthless in the Northern states. But there was one item that the Southern men seldom paid for: they were so desperate for hats that they would steal them from almost anyone’s head.

The fierce summer sunlight beat down on the Confederate soldiers, making the need for hats more intense than usual, and the hard macadam turnpikes of southern Pennsylvania were murder on their bare feet. Just how many men of Lee’s army were barefoot is not known, but it was certainly more than ten percent, and even those who possessed shoes saw that they were on the verge of giving out. Seldom has so successful an army gotten by with such tiny means.