The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1882-02-23

TdIe ARMY WOulu Ill IHTec mOutHS. we udu
plenty and were reckless They were pinche
close and must save At the Federal remoun
: camp, near Harpers Ferry, the writer one da
:. had the curiosity to count the carbine cart
ridges thrown away on the hillside above tn
, camp. On a space of less than an acre in ex
tent were 1854 ounce ball cartridges whicl
had been flung away by reckless hands. TAX
ing in the whole camp in the count, the mum
Der must have been fully 10000. 1t was
rare thing when passing over ground latel.
!; ridge or anything else of value. They tough
us with our own cannon and muskets In ever,
!, battle, and for good share of the time livet
on Uncle Sans rations.
CONFEDERATE MONEY.
The fact that Confederate money had LITTLE
or no value after 1862 did not help the soldie
at all. He had no more than when it was a
par. In 1864, when a fat chicken on the marke
at Richmond was worth hundred dollars the
Confederate private could not buy that chicken
with six months pay. There were two prices
for everything; gold price and paper money
price, and no one could blame speculator fol
asking big prices when he had taken big risks
PRACTICING ECONOMY.
No nation or people were ever closer pushed
by war, and the rich had to suffer with the
poor. Money was of no good to man when
the articles he wanted were not in the country
After the blockade the South had to do with
out tea and coffee and find such substitutes as
she could. Salt and sugar became terribly
scarce, and the price of cereals and vegetables
leaped to appalling figures. If wealthy
family could sit down to dinner of bread,
meat, potatoes and rye coffee no one thought
OF dessert. Thousands of people had nothing
but corn bread and substitute coffee for weeks
at time. And yet no one complained, even
when the cattle were taken by the soldiers,
the horses by the ouartermasters, and fathers
and sons were sent to the front.
After Gettysburg the South was dispirited.
There had been hopes of European interven-
ton. and this was blasted. There had been
hopes of Lee defeating Meade and debating
terms to the North, but Lee had been driven
back The war had been long and bloody,
hard times gripped every household, and men
could look ahead only to wars chances. This
depressed feeling never entirely passed away,
though Lees men did not permit it to dampen
their fighting ardor.
AT THE FRONT.
Two years of war and the close blockade
told on the soldiers more than on the people at
home. When the Commissary issued sorghum
molasses unbolted cornmeal and rancid bacon
all at once, it was an event to be remembered.
When Stonewall Jackson swung in behind
Pope at Second Bull Run the only rations
his men carried was parched corn. After Lee
crossed the Potomac during his invasion of
Maryland the soldiers had no regular rations,
| but ate parched corn green apples, vegetables,
or whatever they could get hold Of During
Lees defense of Petersburg there were days at
time when his men lived on what union
soldier would have heaved aside in disgust.
THE SHADOW OF THE SKELETON
Turn which way they might, at the begin
ming of 1864, the shadow of the gaunt skele-
ton of war and starvation was before them.
In districts where the Union armies had never
set foot, there was scarcity of food and
total absence of medicines. Pins, needles and
thread was carefully handled as gold pieces
would be now. Whatever was worn out was
lost. A share of whatever was raised by wo-
men or cripples was demanded to feed the men
at the front. Every farm was under the eye
OF quartermaster, and every household had
to spare something to keep the war going.
In districts penetrated by the Union troops
affairs were still worse. In such cases both
armies took from the people. When Sheridan
raded the valley with torch and bullet, he left
800 families without barns or live stock and
1000 without house, barn, stock or provisions
for single meal.
FIGHTING THE ODDS.
During the last eighteen months Of the war
the South fought against terrible odds. The
people at home lived from hand to mouth.
Sickness was an inmate OF almost every house
hold. Seed wheat, potatoes and the like could
not be saved from the hungry soldiers, and the
fields could not be planted. Raiding parties
had stripped the farms of live stock, and there
was nothing to kill crippled and discharged
soldier sent to his home found nothing to
work with The army had taken in. boys of
16 and old men of so, and no more recruits
were to be had. A darker picture could not
have been presented, and yet they fought on
AN ARMY IN RAGS.
From the investment OF Petersburg to the
final surrender, no one beyond Lees lines can
imagine the shifts which both army and people
were put to- In the last days of March, 1865
one could not have found a complete uniform
in Lees army Some of the men had hats,
some caps, and some no headgear but hand
kerchief. Where one had an overcoat twenty
had none. Their jackets were in rags, their
pants as bad, and many of the men were bare
| foot. Men who were there in the trenches
cannot remember of having one full meal for
months. Federal historians are too partisan
to credit these things. 1t is enough for them
that the South rebelled, and that she was ter
ribly punished. But there are others who,
while just as bitterly opposed to secession and
Just as certain that rebellion must be put
down, remember that these people are out of
our own blood and flesh, and credit them with
their sacrifices and their bravery.
| TO THE LAST.
The evacuation of Richmond was sad blow
to the tens of thousands whose blind faith in
Lee had led them to believe that his army
could suffer everything and still stand between
Grant and the capital But when he left the
trenches of Petersburg, not one man in one
thousand in his army knew that the end was
near. Indeed. they looked upon it as move
towards some new victory. Cavalry and ar
tillery horses were mere skeletons, the army in
rags and Confederate money no better than
brown paper, and yet when did those men
fight better than IN those last dark days? On
the morning of the final surrender only few
men saw the shadow of the falling hammer
which was to strike last blow. Brigades
which did not number 500 men, regiments
which Gid not number 100, companies in which
there were only six or seven private soldiers,
girded themselves for another battle The last
skirmsh line ever thrown out in front of Lees
army was commanded by captain now at
tached to the Virginia State government
With thirty men he pushed forward through
the woods until stopped by three Federal lines
of battle. Lee was hemmed in and surrounded
t., o1r