You seem to have missed information on the food situation. If you follow the links on the site I posted, you find the following statements from the fall of 1863. They support the contention that there were food shortages in the South and Georgia, in particular. They argue against your position that the South and Georgia had plenty of food.
Mr. Locke, chief commissary of Georgia, wrote: I pray you, major, to put every agency in motion that you can to send cattle without a moment's delay toward the Georgia borders. The troops in Charleston are in great extremity. We look alone to you for cattle; those in Georgia are exhausted.It appears that all other resources are exhausted, and that we are now dependent upon your State [Florida] for beef for the very large army of General Bragg.
You know the resources of Tennessee are lost to us; the hog cholera and other causes have cut short the prospect in Georgia and other States.
…the resources of food (meat) of both the Tennessee and Virginia armies are exhausted. This remark now applies with equal force to South Carolina and Georgia, and the army must henceforth depend upon the energy of the purchasing commissaries, through their daily or weekly collections. I have exhausted the beef-cattle and am now obliged to kill stock cattle.
Florida has done nobly in this contest. Her sons have achieved the highest character for their State and won imperishable honors for themselves. These brave men are now suffering for want of food. Not only the men from Florida, but the whole army of the South are in this condition.
Your food argument qualifies you for the coveted and prestigious Benjamin F. "Beast" Butler Award. The current-day Florida Cattle Battalion presents these awards to certain posters. According to them, the award does not carry a cash prize but does include a carefully selected specimen of Florida cow manure wrapped in your post.