Absentees from the army.
The whole energies of the Confederacy, public and individual, should be devoted to bringing back to the army the absentees and stragglers. Nearly half our military force is scattered over the country, and if returned to its proper position not another man would be needed in the field. We cannot spare the mechanical and agricultural labor to take the places of those drones who are consuming the fruits of the earth, and rendering no equivalent in any way for the bread they eat. Let no man, woman, or child countenance in any way men who have left their comrades to struggle single-handed against the enemies of the country. Let Congress devise, and the military authorities execute, the most stringent measures to have every soldier in his place when the grand tug of battle comes on in the spring.
