“They were starving.”
No, they weren’t. I’m sure many had to skip meals and had little or no work, but they were not starving. The simple fact is that starving men would have no energy to march or travel hundreds of miles and protest for weeks on end. They would all have died. I don’t deny they were desperate, but they were not starving.
Oh, you can’t say something that silly.
I spent a lot of time on the road traveling, and starving, starving men can do a lot, they don’t just lay down and die once they figure out that they are losing weight on a bad, inadequate diet.
Well, they darned sure didn't have an obesity problem. Not a fat guy in the ranks.