Many had served in the Mexican–American War (including Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis), but others had little or no military experience (such as Leonidas Polk, who had attended West Point.)

In the spring of 1865 the Confederate Congress, influenced by the public support by General Lee, approved the recruitment of black infantry units.

Therefore, he waited until Congress adjourned and then stipulated by executive order that any African-American accepted into service on the congressional act must be a volunteer and be accompanied by manumission papers.

However, President Davis considered it imperative that blacks be offered freedom in exchange for military service under terms of the act passed through Congress.

Therefore, he waited for Congress to adjourn and then stipulated by executive order that any African-Americans accepted as soldiers under terms of the act must be volunteers and be accompanied by manumission papers.

The lack of central authority and effective transportation infrastructure, especially the railroads, combined the frequent unwillingness or inability of Southern state governments to provide adequate funding, were key factors in the Army's demise.

Individual commanders had to "beg, borrow or steal" food and ammunition from whatever sources were available, including captured Union depots and encampments, and private citizens regardless of their loyalties.

Lee's campaign against Gettysburg and southern Pennsylvania (a rich agricultural region) was driven in part by his desperate need of supplies, namely food.

Not surprisingly, in addition to slowing the Confederate advance such foraging aroused anger in the North and led many Northerners to support General Sherman's total warfare tactics as retaliation.

Scorched earth policies especially in Georgia, South Carolina and the Virginian Shenandoah Valley proved far more devastating than anything Pennsylvania had suffered and further reduced the capacity of the increasingly effectively blockaded Confederacy to feed even its civilian population, let alone its Army.