HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF
NORTHERN VIRGINIA,
January 19, 1865.
SIR: There is great suffering in the army for want of soap.
The neglect of personal cleanliness has occasioned cutaneous diseases to a
great extent in many commands. The Commissary Department has been applied to,
but the supply received from it is entirely inadequate. Soap is an article of
home manufacture in every family almost. The materials for making it are found
in every household, and the art is familiar to all well-trained domestics. I
cannot but think that by proper efforts a plan might be devised to meet this want
of our soldiers. All that is necessary, I think, is to employ or contract with
some intelligent and practical business men in the different States to insure a
supply. I do not suppose that agents or officers of the C. S. Department can
succeed as well as private individuals, if it be made to the interest of the
latter to procure what we need. I beg that you will endeavor to make
arrangement by which the suffering of the men in this particular can be
relieved.
Very respectfully,
your obedient servant,
R. E. LEE,
General.
SOURCE: John William Jones, Life and Letters of
Robert Edward Lee: Soldier and Man, p. 349-50
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