Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1885-10-07
RICHMOND IN WAR TIMES,
The Confederate Capital Be-
fore Lees Surrender.
Making Purchases with Deprecated
Confederate Currency.

We quote from an article by T. J
Murray in the Washington RepuJH.
can on life in Richmond during the
civil war:
have been asked how the peo.
pie of Richmond managed to get food
during the closing days, when Confed.
ate currency was so fearfully deprecia.
ted. And FIRST, will say that, al.
though the bluebacks were SO much
deprecated, if you only had enough Of
them you could purchase anything you
wished, and the volume of notes in cir.
culation was immense. | recollect
that fellow from Jefferson county
who, on some plea or other, was ex-
empt from service, and who was ex.
ceedingly convivial in his habits,
whenever he wished to make purcha.
ses or visit the saloons or faro banks,
was accustomed to be followed by a
stalwart negro bearing a large
valise crammed to the brim with the
Confederate tokens of indebtedness,
perhaps hundred thousand dollars or
SO, and he never "braced up" until h0
had got rid of the entire pile, and it
didn't take him long, either, to do So
Contrary to the common belief,
there was no lack Of provisions or
delicacies in Richmond at any time
during the war, but the prices, meas
ured by alleged dollars, were simply
stupendous. l do not remember that
there was actual suffering among the
people, although food and drink were,
of course, economically dealt with.
recOllect, ALSO that there was a bread
riot of so large proportions as to call
forth the intervention of the military,
but the women, black and white who
were the chief participants, were of the
lowest class, and were instigated not by
want so much as by pure deyiltry.
1t is a curious fact that what are call
ed tho lowest classes Jared better, SO
far as provisions were concerned than
the Ofice-hOlders or the Weather class
es. The salaries of the ollice-holders.
both Confederate and state, were gross
ly inadequate to provide for their fam
lilies, and the Weather citizens at tho
outset of the war had invested, almost
without exception, all their available
means in the Sper cent. bonds of the
Confederate government. Those who
owned slaves by hiring them out OBJ
tanned large returns, for labor was in
great demand; but the trouble was
that the Confederate authorities con.
scripted all able bodied negroes as driv-
ers of mule teams, laborers on the for
tlllcations, etc, just as they conscripted
able-bOdied whites for service in the
field, and the hire given to the masters
was but 1.-THE of what could have
been procured in open market
Talk about Washington being a city
of boarding houses and restaurants.
Why it was not circumstance to the
Confederate capital. Nearly every
house, and especially OF people of limi-
ted leans, was filled with dodgers, and
nearly every other house was an eat
ing-house, The poor whites and
blacks made money hand over fist by
cooking provisions and selling them
from stands on the streets and at the
depots, to the huge swarms of hungry
people who were constantly coming
and going. The population proper of
Richmond was not a fourth of the
vast crowd that daily and nightly con-
gregattd within its corporate limits,
1t was the Mecca of the Confederacy,
and the pilgrimages made thereto
were constant in their coming. Officers
and soldiers, Jewish merchants, Tex
empts,' blockade refugees
from Maryland and West Virginia and
from the counties of the state held by
Federals, poured in steady stream
into the lap of the city, and the people
of the city made their living, and, in
deed, it may be said, in many instan-
ces, waxed fat, in feeding and lodging
the hungry horde.