Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-03-29
Misrellaneous.
Life in Richmond During the Seige.

have been asked how the people OF
Richmond managed to get food during
the closing days, when confederate cur
rency was so fearfully deprecated.
was about to say l don't know. but on
reflection think can give an easy solh-
ton of the matter. And. first, Will say
that, altho' the blueblacks were so mucn
deprecated, if you only had enough OF
them you could purchase anything you
wished, and the volume of notes in circu-
lation was immense | recellect that a
fellow from Jefferson county. who. on
some plea or other, was exempt from ser
vice. and who was exceedingly convivial
in his habits. whenever he wished to make
purchases or visit the saloons or faro
banks. was accustomed to be followed by
a stalwart negro bearing large vallse
crammed to the brim with the confederate
tokens of Indebtedness, perhaps Sl0O-,
600 or so, and he never 'braced up"
until he 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 delicacles IN
Richmond at any time during the war,
but the prices, measured by alleged dol
lars, were simply stupendous.
do not remember that there was any
actual suffering among the people, al
though food and drink were. Of course,
economically dealt with. | recollect, al
so. that there was bread riot of so large
proportions as to call for the interference
of the military: but the women, black
and white, who were the chief partcl-
pants. were of the lowest class, and were
instigated not by want SO much as pure
deviltrv.
1t is a curious fact that what are called
the lower classes Jared better, so far as pro-
visions were concerned, than the Otticehold-
ers or the weather. classes. The salaries of
the officeholders, both confederate and state
were grossly inadequate to provide fortheir
families, and the weather. citizens at the
outset of the war had invested, almost
without exception, all their available
means in the per cent. bonds of the con-
iederate government. Those who owned
slaves, by hiring them out obtained large
returns, for labor was in great demand !;
but the trouble was that the confederate
authorities conscripted all able-bodied ne
groes as drivers of mule teams, laborers
on the Notifications, etc.. just as they con-
lDltu dUlt-UOucu WHltCS iOi oClNlSCo III
the field, and the hire given to the masters
was but 1.-THE of what could have been
procured in open market.
Talking about Washington being city
of boarding houses and restaurants. Why,
it was not circumstance to the confeder-
ate capital. Nearly every house, and es-
pecially of people of limited means, was
filled with dodgers. and nearly every other
house was an eating house. The poorer
whites and blacks made money hand over
fist by cooking provisions and selling them
from stands on the streets and at the de-
pots to huge swarms of country people
who were constantly coming and going.
The population proper of Richmond was
not a fourth of the vast crowd that daily
and nightly congregated within its corpo-
rate limits. 1t was the Mecca of the con
federacy, and the pilgrimages made there
to were constant in their coming. Officers
and soldiers, Jewish merchants, lex
empts," blockade runners, refugees from
Maryland and West Virginia and from
counties of the state held by the federals,
poured in a steady stream into the lap of
the city. and the people of the city made
their living, and, indeed, it may be said.
in many instances, waxed fat in feeding
and lodging the hungry horde. II j.
Murray IN Washington Republican,,