The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1902-04-18

FACTS
AND
~FANCIES~
CORRESPONDENCE FROM TENNESSEE

CORRESPONDENCE FROM TENNESSEE
BY WILL r. HALE.

pathetic. She tells some unpleasant
stories, but seems sincere, fair and
truthful. And just here it seems peril
| nent to mention the neglect into which
we have let the memories of the de-
voted nurses themselves fall. So lit
tie have our histories had to say of
them that 1 do not now recall but
two. These were Sallie Chapman Law
of Memphis and Miss Cumming. The
former was known as the Mother of
the Confederacy, and died in 1894.
Wherever there was suffering she was
to be found, and hundreds of soldiers
found death made easier by her tender
ness and Christian eXhortations. Gen.
Joseph E. Johnston once had 10000
troops to pass in review before her
an honor never accorded to another
female during the Civil war. Some
poet should embalm her name in song
she was worthy If any woman ever
was,
Miss Cumming says that in the early
days of the war it was not considered
respectable for females to enter the
hospitals. and even the doctors did not
give them full credit. She gives in
stances Of Confederate soldiers hav-
ing to pay for drinking water in Mis-
sissippi when they were giving their
lives in defense of that State. At the
depot at Okolona she saw number OF
men taken from the train. Some were
dead and others wounded. They were
wrapped in their blankets land put
down on the platform as if they were
bundles Of rags" She visited the
scene few hours later and saw the
men still lying there helpless. 81
asked if there were none to care for
them" she proceeds, land was in
formed that there was no one, and
that they had not even had a drop Of
water. The sun was shining directly
upon some of them
For awhile she was at Chatta-
nooga. Here is a broadside at some Of
the citizens: There are numbers Of
poor people here, but many seem to be
unfit for anything. They are the most
miserable looking beings l have ever
met. Reading or writing with them
is out of the question. l suspect if
were to ask them about education they
would scarcely know what meant
hope the people we see here are not a
fair sample of the poorer class of coun-
try people in Tennessee" That is dis
couraging and uncomplimentary, to be
sure; but here is a mixed compliment:
The lowest and most degraded peo-
pie L have ever met were in Tennes-
see, and the best educated and most
polished men were also from that
State"
Miss Cumming and some Confed-
crate friends stopped at the home of a
wealthy citizen of Tuskegee, Ala, and
she records this: while Capt. c.. and
myself were in the parlor looking over
some books a lady called on Miss K.
In the course of conversation the lat
ter informed her that the Federals
were expected to garrison the town.
The lady replied: Il am so glad, as
it will be such nice change (from
the Confederates). l looked at Capt.
G. The blood mounted to his face,
and he muttered between his teeth, is
this the kind of women 1 have been
fighting for?'"
During the war many rumors were
current of the kind treatment accord
ed Federal soldiers by the Southern
especially in Mobile. All this
aroused the ire of the soldiers of the
South. No doubt it was exaggerated
very much. Miss Cumming, on going
to Mobile near the close of the war,
dismisses the rumors in these words:
Il found that the people had been
sadly misrepresented, and instead of
the joyful welcome given to the tri-
umphant army, the town had the quiet
ness of the grave. Scarcely a soul was
to be seen on the street, with the ex-
ception of negroes. Every blind was
closed. Since then there are but two
or three ladies who have countenanced
the enemy in any way, and now their
old friends will have nothing to say
to them. The ladies take no more
notice of the Federal officers than if
they were invisible. With few eXcep-
lions the ladies are true to their dead.
The color of blue is wholly ignored. 1
heard one little girl crying bitterly
because her mother was going to put
a blue ribbon on her hat-she said the
Yankees might take her for one of
them"
Some High Prices.
1t is presumed that the few isolated
cases of Southern women's neglect and
lack of patriotism were taken too
much to heart by Miss Cumming
there has never been a more admirable
type than our Southern women during
those perilous times. In justice to her
it should be stated that she gives hun
dreds of instances of the devotion of
the women, who made their own wear
ing apparel, sent clothing to the
troops, attended the wants of the
starving and wounded, and did much
to encourage the soldiers in the field
under circumstances that have no
parallel in the history of civilized peo-
pie.
1t may be interesting to close this
sketch with some mention of the
scarcity of commodities and the prices
that prevailed in war times. Miss
Cumming in 1863 paid SO yard for
a dress of common cotton delaine.
Calico was 81 yard. Sweet milk was
50 a gallon and buttermilk 81. This
was at Chattanooga. She also paid
SIG for pair of leather shoes. In Mo-
bile ladies' calf-skin bootees cost 500,
and mems shoes $50 more. Hats for
women and men were made of saw
palmetto, and this was also plated and
used for dress trimmings.
Miss Cumming quotes Mobile prices
from a paper, showing the advance in
provisions and other things from JAN
uary, 1862, to January, 1865.
Flour went from SLIPS per barrel
to $500; cornmeal from 81 a bushel to
81; coffee, from 60 cents a pound to
$50; sugar from cents to So; onions,
from So barrel to S10O25; wood from
$3.50 a cord to $40; and New Orleans
molaSseS from SO cents a gallon To 500