Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1874-04-09
Or years, woul1>sasazss s,. secured Ii

the Confederacy d treasury richer than
that of the United States. We should
thus have had, to the end of the war,
1.-THE means of paying our soldiers !;
and that would have enabled such of
them as belonged to the laboring class
Ito remain in the ranks. This class,
lin the Confederacy as, in all other
countries, formed the body of
the army. In all the earlier part
of the war, when the Confeder-
ate money was not much below that
of, the United States in value, our
troops were paid with some regulari.
ty, and the soldiers Of the laboring
3class who had families fed and clothed
them with their pay, as they had
formerly done with the wages Of
3their labor. And SO long as that
state of things continued the strength
lof the Confederate armies was lutte
impaired; and those armies were
maintained on such footing as to
Justify the hope, which was general
lin the South until the Fall of 1864,
THAT
WE WERE TO WIN IN THE CONTEST.
4 But after the Confederate currency
Fss;s.ss5rsssssse,neaalmost worthless EMhen
a soidlers-1as'n +: Scarce.
lily buy one meal for his family-and
that was the case in all the last Pc
riod of ten or twelve months-those
soldiers of the laboring class who had
4 families were compelled to choose be-
tween their military services and the
strongest obligations men know
their duties to wives and children.
They obeyed the strongest of those
obligations, left the army and re-
turned to their homes to support
their families. The wretched i'm
pressment laws deprived the army Of
many valuable men Of class less poor
than that just referred to. Those
laws required the impressment of all
articles of military necessity that
could be purchased. The Govern.
ment had the power Of regulating
the prices to be paid bv it for all
such commodities; and its commits
sioners appointed for the purpose
fxod them much below the market
values. No one would sell to the
Government. of course, when he
'could get from his neigh:bors twice
the Government price for his horses
or grain; consequently the officers Of
the Government could never pur-
chase, but had always to procure sup,
plies by impressmrnt. No ru es for
their guidance were prescribed none
at least that were observed by them
Or known to the public, and they
~ ere subj jvetea to x-z,l..-r>i-,on. All
the property of Confederate citizens
applicable to military purposes was,
therefore, under their absolute CON
troll.
TIE BAD AND INDIFFERENT OFFICERS
impressed what they were called
upon to furnish, in the manner least
lnconvenient to themselves, usually
on the nearest plantations OF farms,
or those where opposition was not to
be appreiIended. The farms of SOL
diers were generally under the man.
agement OF women, and therefore
were not unusually drawn upon for
much more than their proportion.
Hence it was not uncommon for a
soldier to be written to by his wife
that so much OF the food he had pro-
vided for herself and his children
had been impressed; that it was
necessary that he should return to
save them from suffering or starva-
tion. Such summons, it may we'll
be supposed, was never unheeded.
The suffenngs of the soldiers them
selves, produced by the want OF
proper clothing, drove many Of the
least hardy out of the ranks. Want
Of food also is said to have had the
same effect, especially in. the army
before Richmond i'll the last Winter
Of the war. 1t was by such causes,
all due to.an. empty treasury, that
our armies, sgere SO reduced in the
last months of the war. AS to the
charge of want of loyalty or zeal in
the war, l assert, from as nuch op.
portunity for observation as.any in
dividual had, that no people ever dis
played so much under such circum-
stances, and with so little tagging
for so long a time continuously. This
was proved by
THE LONG. SERVICE OF THE TROOPS
without pay and under exposure to
such hardships, from the C uses above
mentioned, as modern. troops have
rarely endured by the voluntary,
contributions OF food and clothing
sent to the armies from every district
that furnished a regiment; by. the
general and continued submission of
the people to the tyranny Of the i'm
pressment system as practiced-such
tyranny. believe, as no other
high-spirited people ever endured
and by the sympathy and aid given
in every house to all protesting to be-,
long to the army or to be on the way
to Join it. And this spirit continued
not only after allhope of success had
died, but after the final confession Of
defeat by their military commanders.
But. even if the men of the South
had not been Jealous in the cause,
the patriotism Of their mothers, and
wives, and sisters, would have in
spirsd them with zeal or shamed
them: into it's manifestation. The wo-
men of the South exhibited that feel
ing wherever il could be exercised
in the armies by;distributins clothing
made with their own einands, at the .
railroad stationsund their own'holnes
by feSding the marching soldiers,
and, above. all, in the hospitals, where
they rivaled Sisters of Charity. /
am happy. in the belief that their
devoted patriotism and gentle charity
are to be richly rewarded. f q