The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-01-25

and making, was furnished the societies
by the State and county authorities.
But this supply was by no means
adequate even for the first winter,
especially in the way of woolens though
viewed from later standpoint, when
the Confederate soldier had solved the
problem OF the minimum of food and
raiment necessary to keep soul and body
together, it might have appeared
sumptuous indeed. Men fresh from
comfortable, often luxurious, homes,
unseasoned to hardship and exposure,
were unable to dispense at once with
comforts which they afterward learned
to despise. Even after all was done for
them that care and solicitude could
prompt, larger number succumbed to
exposure than was the case during any
OF the three succeeding winters.
The chief mission of these sewing
societies was to supplement the public
systematic collecting of private contri-
buttons. Each member had assigned to
her SO much territory, which was can
vassed with thoroughness and earnest
ness that never even to the end of the
war failed to produce marvellous results.
No matter how denuded of such things
a neighborhood might appear, women
seemed to have a power of conjuring up
clothing and blankets from somewhere.
For the first year or two such things,
where possessed, were to Oe had for the
asking, but when privation, wants
fOrerunner, entered nearly every home,
it required no little eloquence to obtain
donations from people who had already
given till there was virtually nothing
left to give.
From the first, blankets were the great
desideratum. Wool to make sufficient
quantity was not to he had, but cotton
was plentiful everywhere. Bedquilts and
comforts made OF homespun and filled
with batted cotton, though warm and
serviceable, were unfit for camp use,
owing to their weight, their affinity for
water and the great difficulty of drying
them when once wet. So by the advice
of these societies the home people took
| the blankets from the beds, sent them to
| the soldiers, and made comforts to take
| their places. When the rough camp
| usage wore these blankets out, then
carpets were taken up, cut to proper
sizes, bound and sent i'll their stead.
| This, if | mistake not, was an expedient
of the second winter. By the time these
disappeared the man in gray had found
out that about all a Confederate soldier
needed, anyhow, was his cornbread
rations and his musket.
| The makeshifts to provide flannel
shirts for the troops were even more
numerous than those to supply blankets.
For this purpose the ladies gave their
heavier wooden dresses and when these
were exhausted, their shawls, which, fol
| comfort, surpassed all other material
1t must be remembered that all this
labor and self-robbery was done as extra
service by those who had their own
husbands, fathers, sons and brothers to
fatigable workers, female soldiers" as
means, who made these sacrifices for thu
common soldiers; their kindred being
able to supply their wants in less extra
ordinary ways.
For along time it was rule of thes'
sewing societies to let no coat leave theil
hands for the camp without a Bible OF
Testament in it's breast pocket. For
argued the pious workers, such a shield
may be the means of saving not only thu
wearer's soul but his life also. And il
not few instances this solicitude PROVED
to be not in vain. Every now and ther
word would come how the sacred
pocket-worn book had stopped a Fedora
bullet on it's way to a Southern heart
usually with the mention of the very
chapter and verse where the leader
visitor ceased to penetrate.
When all available Bibles and Tesla
ments had been thus disposed of it wa
the custom to supply the deficiency witt
a few plainly written verses selected from
Scripture. Sometimes, instead of these
stanzas from patriotic songs or cheering
and sympathetic notes were placed il
the pockets, signed with the donor
name and address. In many instances
widely separated in time and place
there came back grateful answers tt
) these missives; sometimes from tn
hospital or Federal prison; oftener iron
the trenches, scrawled on the rough
yellowish Confederate paper; now an
} then from the battlefield on genuin
note paper just taken from the knaI
sack of some fallen foe One of thes
) letters came to an abrupt end. Tn
page was spattered with ink and BLOOD
: A shell had burst and destroyed tn
inkstand, was the laconic postscript
written with pencil in another han6
There was not word as to the fate {
the first writer. Many friendships ha
their beginning in these chance con
munications, though l never knew
, romance to result DAVID DODGE.