A History of the Jews in America . Everyone old enough to bear arms, from the age of fourteen to seventy-five, is enlisting in the various companies. The young men are at the disposition of the President of the Confederate States, to be sent wherever the service of the state requires. The old men remain in the cities, to defend their hearths against any unforseen attack. The young men of the better families, accustomed to a soft and idle existence, are enlisting as privates and, with knapsacks on their backs, are leaving with their company to defend Pensacola, to attack Fort Pickens, or to fight in Virginia.
All conversation is about battles, armament, and attack.
The women themselves, who without hesitation have given their sons and their brothers to the common cause, work all day sewing sandbags and making cannon-cartridges. Miss Eustace herself made 140 hoods to protect the soldiers against mosquitoes. The governor's wife and twenty other ladies bought cloth, took their sewing machines, embarked with the troops, and when the company arrived at Mobile, it was fitted out. In short, there is a strong will here to resist a foreign invasion to the last breath. And, as I say, it is not here only.