The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-04-23
WAR DAYS in CONFEDERACY
BEGINNING AND ENDING THERE
As Told by South Carolina Matron
fla tho New York Evening Post.


We were all sure Of immediate recog.
milton by the European powers, and our
political leaders proved to us most logi-
cally that, induced by the distress in hel
manufacturing districts, Great Britain
would very soon raise the blockade as
high as the sky, to let King Cotton In
his vessels pass by" Oh, short sighted
leaders! Then came the first battle Of
Manassas, by whose issue we were more
than ever convinced of the speedy sue
cess of our undertaking.
In 1862, after the fall of Beaufort, the
men Of Charleston, began to feel alarm
for the safety of their families, so all
the women and children Of the well-to-
do classes We're sent to the interior Of
the state the "up-country," where their
welcome was far from cordial, and
where some of them began to see things
as they really existed oh, how we
hated to leave the city, where we could
hear the sound of the guns in the en-
gagements along the coast, and where
the inestlmable bulletin-board furnished
us with the latest news from every
quarter In A, where we "refugeed'' "a
confederate word, coined for the occa
sion), we could hear only once day
from the points Of interest, so it was ar
ranged that the locomotive of the daily
train should convey the latest intelli-
gence to our anxious hearts by giving a
long whistle when the news was favora-
BILE, and a short one when it was the
reverse. All, how we used to listen for
that sound!
AS time passed on the blockade be-
came more effectual, and our household
supplies becoming exhausted, we were
driven to all sorts Of expedients to make
up the deficiencies. Our coffee consist
ed of few grains of the genuine arti-
Gle, obtained at prodigious expense,
ground together with parched wheat
We learned to appreciate the advan-
tages of peace and plenty by long
course of bacon and hominy for break
fast, bacon and rice for dinner. and
cornbread with milk and water, or per
haps sassafras tea for supper-real tea
was drawn for invalids only. Our dear
mother was first-class housekeeper,
and, considering the scarcity Of materi-
al at her command. managed to provide
the family with very respectable va
riety of edibles She made vinegar,
blackberry wine, pickles, cake--her con-
federate cake, sweetened with sorghum
and enriched with dried fruit, would be
palatable even now, Every variety of
cornbread she made, and when we We're
60 fortunate as to obtainoa little wheat
flour, her bread and rills were unrivaled.
We learned to manufacture candles and
soap, and though the latter appeared to
be sort Of notified Jelly, 1t answered
It's purpose, and We were thankful for It,
Our costumes were composed OF long
discarded garments, counterpanes and
curtains, and finally homespun woven in
the country around, and costing many
confederate dollars a yard. One sum
mer we were all grandly arrayed in
>wflite lace Garibaldi waists, fashioned
out of piece Of pavilion gauze, or bob
binet, discovered at the bottom Of a
trunk AS a family we had been very
proud of the shape and dimensions of
our feet, and it was with great NORTH
cation that we beheld them encased in
the clumsy constructions of common
country shoemakers. Occasionally one
Of us was SO fortunate as to procure, for
the modest price of one hundred or one
hundred anu HLly uOlIdTS, u pair WHICH
had run the blockade"
A But, oh, how we missed the books and
magazines in which we had reveled be
fore the war;" The newspapers, which
We greedily devoured, consisted of din
gy brown sheets, containing all sorts Of
Abs, published to keep UP our spirits and
courage. l well remember just after the
battle of Gettysburg reading an account
of the great victory we had gained, and
seeing forty thousand prisoners taken
by Lee printed in the largest type af-
forded by the Confederate printing
presses Sometimes pages Of these pa
pers were filled with the remarkable de-
bates Of Duh congressman as to what
should be the design of our battle flag,
the color of the Confederate uniform,
or the device for coloners collar, and
there were many columns of IAN act,
entitled an act to amend an act" about
some such trife, while Grant was thun-
dering at our front door and Sherman
entering our back gate
In the literary famine that prevailed,
we read and reread the books we had
discarded, and we renewed our ac-
quaintance with Scott, Bulwer, Thacke
ray, Hawthorne, ETC., but, oh, how we
did enjoy Lies Miserables" when 1t ap-
peared-published in Mobile, I think.
It's coarse, drab-colored pages were in
closed in wallpaper covers, but l am
sure the most finished productions of
the printer and ookbinder never gave
to any mortals the pleasure conveyed |
by those dingy volumes to our starved |
minds.
Our amusements were simple, and So
cial intercourse was quite primitive. |
Reading clubs in the morning and mu-
steal parties-"after tea" always-in |
the evenings constituted our widest
eayeties, and during the long months |
when the armies were inactive, a winter
uarters' life would have been dreary |
indeed but for gossip and choice bits of /
scandal. Once we enjoyed sensation,
in attending a reception-"after tea
given to General Morgan, who passed |
our village after his escape
from the penitentary in Ohio, | think
Though we only shook his hand and
stared in his good-looking face, We all |
felt our courage and patriotism stimu-
lated thereby.
AS the days wore on, increasing our
necessities and diminishing our re-
some began to get weary OF the
struggle. Men deserted from the army
RI feed their families who We're stray