The Copiah signal. (Hazlehurst, Miss.) 1882-1883, 1882-07-28
Last Days Of the C0nfed


Tho fact that Confederate money had
little or no value after 1862 did not
help tre soldier at all. Ho had nc
moro than when it was at par. IL
1864, when o fat chicken on the
market in Richmond was worth one
hundred dullars. the @ ,nfei eierate pri.
vats could not buy that chicken with
six months pay. Tiere were tive
prices for everything. q gold price
and q paper money price, and no one
could blame o speculator for asking
big prices when he had taken big
risks.
No nation Of people were eve,
closer pus he'd by war. and the rich
had to suffer with tho poor. Money
was Of no good to o man when The
article he wanted was not In the
country. After the blockade the
S,uth had tr do without tea and cof-
fee and find such substitutes as she
Id. Salt and sugar became terri.
bly, scarce, and the price Of cereals
and vegetable leaped to appalling
figures. TIA wealthy family could
sit down 10 dinner Of bread, meat
potatoes and rye cofr3e no one
thought OF desert. Thousands oI
people had nothing but corn bread
and substitute coffee for weeks at q
time. Aud yet no one complained,
even when tho cattle were taken by
The quartermasters, and fathers and
sons were sent to the front. Women
who had never set O table or laudled
q broom soon learned to handle o
hoo and even guide the plow. After
July, 1863. nino tenths Of tho pillow
ing done in Virginia was the work OF
women, aud in thousands OF cases
they harvested the crops.
After Gettysburg the South was
dispirited. There had been hopes
Of European Intervention. and this
WAS blasted. There had been hopes
of Lee defeating Mead and debating
terms to the North. bnt Lo had
been driven back. Tho war had
been long and bloody, hard times
griped every household, and men
could look ahoad only to wars
chances. This depressed feeling
never entirely passed away, though
Lees men did not permit it to damp
en- their ardor.
Two years OF wer and tho close
blockade told more on the soldiers
than on all the people at home. When
the commissary issucd sorghum mo-
lasses, unbolted coin meal and ran.
cid bacon all at once, il was an even
to be we'll remembered. When S one
wall Jackson swung in tehipd Pope
al Second Bull run the only rations
his mon carried was parched corn.
After Lee crossed the Potomac dur.
ing his invasion OF Maryland, the
soldiers had no regular rations, but
ate parched corn, green apples, veg.
tables. or whatever they could get
hold Of. During Lees defense oi
Petersburg there were days at a time
when his men lived on what a Union
soldier would have heaved aside in
disgust.
Turn which way they mighs. at
the beginning Of 1864, the shadow OF
the gaunt skeleton Of war md star
ration was before them In districts
where the Union armies had never
set foot, and o total absence OF medi'
cines. pins. needles, and thread were
as carefully handled as gold peices
would be now. Whatever was ont
was lost. A share Of whatever was
raised by tho women or cripple wa
demanded to feed the mon at the
front. Every farm was under tho
eye Of q quartermastor, and every
household had to spare something to
to keep tho war going.
Districts penetrated by union men
affairs werv still woasr. In such cases
both armies took from the people
When Sherman raided the valley
with torch and bullet he left l,50C
families without barns or live stock
aud 1000 without houses. barn. OF
or provisions for single meal.
Daring 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 evory household
seed wheat, potatoes, and the lik'
could not be saved from the hungry
soldiers, and the fields could not bs
planted. Raidiug parties had strip
ped the farms Of live stock, and there
was nothing to kiln A crippled and
a:--IH .@1Ss~s cont In hi