The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-03-31
The Southern Confederacy.


NeG1o6os SOseRA IL 0OnAnuOa ORlahO1
,aG Of What Ruined II.
.3r'Hs IS sT~sG ,--gs .t,sy . E.s.s
q The rebel General Joseph E. Johnston has
inst published work entitled "a Nara
tive Of Military Operations Directed During
the Late War Between the States" He
shows that Jefferson Davis interfered with
his movements in very provoking way,
and then attempts to shsw that the South
it's resources. He says: -
A full! treasury was necessary to defray
tie expenses of q great war. The South
had the means of making one, in its cotton
alone. But its government rejected those
means, and limited it's financial efforts to
printing bank notes, with which the country
was soon flooded. The necessity of actual
money in the treasury, and the mode of
raising it, were generally understood in the
country. 1t was that the government should
take the cotton from the owners aud send it
TO Europe as fast as possible, to be sold
there. This was easily practicable, for the
owners were ready to accept any terms the
government might fix, and sending to En-
rope was easy in all the first year of the Con-
federacy's existence. Its government went
into operation early in February. The
blockade Of the Southern ports was pro-
claimed in May, but not at all effective until
the end of the following winter, SO that
there was period Of twelve months for the
operation Of converting 4.OOO, 600 OF 5,OOO,
600 bales of cotton into money. The SUM
raised in that way would have enabled the
War Department to procure at once arms
enough for SOC, 900 men, and after that ex-
penditure the Confederate Treasury would
have been much richer than that
Of the United States. By applying
the first money obtained in this
way to the purchase of arms and mill
tary Announcements, or using for the purpose
the credit Which such an amount of prop
erty would have given, the War Depart
ment would have beer, able to equip troops
as fast as they could have been ssembled
and organized. And, as the Southern people
were fail of enthusiasm, 500 600 men could
have been ready and in the field had such a
course been pursued at the time when the
first battle was actually fought-the 21st of
July, 1861. Such force placed on the
northern borders of the Confederacy before
the United States had brought fourth of
the number into the field, would probably
have prevented the very idea of "coerciOn."
Such disposition of such an army, and the
possession of financial means of carrying on
war for years. would have secured the sue
cess of the Confederacy.
The timely adoption of such financial
system would have secured to us the means
OF success, even without an extraordinary
OF arms and the immediate or
ganization of large armies.
But after the Confederate currency had
become almost worthless, when soldiers
months pay would scarcely Duy one meal
for his family-and that was the case in all
the last period Of ten or twelve months
those soldiers of the laboring class who had
families were compelled to choose between
their military service and the strongest OBJ
men kuOw-their duties to wives
aud children. They obeyed the strongest of
those obligations, left the army, and re-
turned to their homes to support their fami
lies. AZ
The wretched impressment laws deprived
the army of many valuable men of class
less poor than that Just referred to. Those
laws required the imprisonment of all arti-
cles of military necessity that could not be
purchased. The government had the power
of regulating the prices to be.paid by it for
all such commodities; and the commissioners
appointed for the purpose fixed them much
below the market values No one would sell
to the government, o! course, when he could
get from his neighbors twice the government
price for his horses or grain consequently
the officers of the government could never
PURCHASE, DuG udu W plOSuIC supplies
by impressment. No rules for their guild
ance were prescribed; none at least that
were observed by them or known to the
public, and they were subjected to no ST.
pervisiOn. All the property Of Con federate
citizens applicable to military purposes was,
therefore, under their absolute control. The
bad and Indifferent officers impressed what
they were called upon to furnish in the
manner least inconvenient to themselves usu-
ally on the nearest plantations OF farms, or
those where opposition was not to be appre
hended. The farms of soldiers were gener-
ally nnder the management OF women, and
therefore were not unusually drawn upon
for more than their proportion. Hence it
was not uncommon for soldier to he writ
ten to by his wife that so much of the food
he had provided for herself and children had
been impressed that it was necessary that
he should return to save them from suffer-
ing or starvation. Such summons, it may
well be supposed, was never unheeded.
The sufferings Of the soldiers themselves,
produced by the want Of proper clothing,
drove many OF the least hardy out of the
ranks. Want of food is also said to have
had the same effect especially in the army
before Richmond in the last winter of the
war. Boz at.-+s. ....E..t "a
1t was by such causes, all due to an empty
treasury, that our armies We're so reduced IN
the last months of the war. rag
As to the charge of want of loyalty or, zeal
in the war;, ] assert, from as much OppOrtu-
nifty for observation a. any individual had,
that no people ever displayed so much under
such circumstances and with 90 little flag
ging for so long time continuously. ri -.
+. An error in relation to the state of prepar-
alton for war Of each Of the two sections Of
the country in the beginning Of 1861 has pre-
vailed in the North since then. / refer to
the belief that when the Southern COnfeder-
acy was formed the arms that had been pro-
vided by the Government Of the United
States for the common defense were in the
possession Of the seeded States. 7i 10
This belief was produced by the most
malignant and industriously circulated
ISLANDERS by which the reputation of any
public man Of the United States ever suffer-
ed-the accusation against John B. Floyd,
of Virginia that while Secretary of War he
had all the publ c arms removed from North
ern to Southern arsenals; to disarm the
North for the impending war. This accusation
was SO extensively circulated as to lead to
an investigation by committee Of the House
of Representatives in January, 1861. The