It wasn't just the rebels.....Union soldiers were often barefooted. They made poor shoes back then on both sides. Like today, they had their shares of corrupt government contractors. Bruce Catton wrote about one Union regiment receiving a new pair of shoes, began their march and were shoeless by the day's end. They found that the soles of their shoes were made of harden paper instead leather. Books say that Harry Heth Division marched on to Gettysburg in search of shoes and they ran into Buford and his cavalry division, starting the battle. (In the movie, they put soft dirt on the road so the reenactors can march barefooted as if they were on a beach but in real life, the country roads were pretty hard and barefooted soldiers often bleed and blistered out, main reason for stragglers during the war.)