It is said that armies march on their stomachs. Well, it is also true that they march on their feet and good footwear is an absolute necessity. During the Civil War the roads were dusty in the summer and muddy in the winter, and both the Confederate and Union soldiers suffered greatly during marches. More Confederates were country-bred and accustomed to longer hiking, but on the other hand the Confederacy was always low on shoes. Ill-fitting shoes were also a problem. Confederate soldiers identified as shoemakers were encouraged to send home, or in some cases were given leave to go home and retrieve their tools. They were then put to work repairing shoes, being exempted from guard duty and other camp duties. However, the general shortage of footwear only got worse as the war continued on.

There were numerous accounts of Rebels marching barefoot for miles, even in winter months. On the march back from Gettysburg in the Summer of 1863, those whose shoes were worn out or whose feet were sore from wearing bad shoes, were organized into a separate command and allowed to pick their way along the grassy roadside. Shoes and boots were so valuable that special missions were made to procure them. They were even pulled from the feet of dead men on the bloodstained battlefields.