The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1902-05-16
THE ELOQUENCE
OF FACTS.
By SENATOR H. D. MONEY.

By SENATOR H. D. MONEY.
TNO the Editor of The Common
wealth, Greenwood, Miss. My
"A dear Sir:-I have your note
asking me to write short article con-
cerning the Civil War to be published
in the souvenir number of The Com
monwealth, May 10th, the proceeds to
go to the Beauvoir fund which is being
raised by the Mildred Humphreys Camp
Of Sons of Veterans of your city.
The valor of the men of the Confed
eracy and the heroism of the women
have been so often and so beautifully
eulogized that shall content myself
with some figures which may be dry
and uninteresting to some but which
speak more eloquently than any Ian
guage on the constant courage and pa
triotic self-abnegatiOn of the men OF
the Confederacy in the unequal strug
gle with the Northern States
Thomas Henry Buckle states that
statistics are the anatomy Of history.
There were enrolled in the United
States from 1851 to 1865, inclusive, on
the roster of the Union armies (taken
from the report of the Provost Marshal
for the year 1860 2,S54,13s. Reducing
these from a period of three months to
three years to uniform standard of
three years, the whole number enlisted
amount to 2,32O,217. Included in these
were 1861 colored troops, of which
the South furnished So, 571, and the re-
port mentions that many other colored
troops were enlisted in the South and
credited to Northern States. Why this
was done we will not inquire. The
number of soldiers of foreign birth upon
the muster roll of the Federal Army
was 5S3, OOO
The whole number enlisted in the
service of the ConfederacY was 6OO 900.
The population of the Southern States
in 1860 q mean of the Confederate
States of the South was 8,71O, O9S. The
colored population in 1860 was 1858, 700
and free colored population of 4SS, O7O,
which leaves, roughly speaking, a white
population of four millions, of which
"a, 1877 we're enlisted as troops of the
Union Army, or one man in about each
IA of the population. These ffty-four
and odd thousand men in the Union
Army represented Southern white
population of $4,000, leaving A.
2OO 900 to furnish the 100000 men on
the Confederate roster. This was tax
ing soldiers from the cradle to the grave
to use the emphatic language of the
times.
The Northern States paid in bounties
to secure their quota of soldiers $685.
041, 900.
The business Of the North, open to
the whole world, prospered exceeding
lY. There was never a time in which
business enterprise was so active and
energetic. The coast of the Confeder-
cy was blockaded; they had no market
for their marketable products; they
had no currency with which to conduct
their business, internal or external, and,
with this immense difference, they car
ried on a mighty struggle for four
years. The great battles of the war
will show that they had more successes
than their enemy, but the attritiOn of
numbers was constantly telling upon
the Confederate forces in the field-the
blockade which prevented supplies of
arms, clothing, medicines and soldiers,
had the result anticipated by General
Grant.
One Of the most conspicuous features
of the devoted spirit of the Confederate
Armies was that, when ragged, hungry
and unpaid, they never mutinled, and
preserved always, not sullen and des
perate recklessness, but the gay cour
age of heroic people.
The gentle daughters of the South
gave their dearest offerings on the altar
Of liberty, with breaking yet undaunted
hearts.
There have been longer struggles in