The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-17

the first blows of that long conflict, o {, the preparations for that conflict, oi both North and South were wholly un, prepared for war.
 Of the lack of war-material at the | South, the writer declares: Never was a country so totally unprepared to fight its J battles. And the rapidity with which the South created out of nothing so ef- | ficient military organization as she did Is perhaps the most striking feature of the great struggle. It evidenced a courage a determination, and an absolute devotion to their cause on the part of the people | nothing less than marvellous.
 How a cavalry without arms or equip ment was furnished with these necessaries | of war: how the armies of a country with | no factories. laboratories, mines or foun- dries secured artillery, powder. caps and l bullets. how this government whose peo- | pie had few skilled artisans, constructed | a fleet; in a word, how, thrown on it's own resources. it was able to maintain for | four years the greatest war of modern times, is one of the problems of history. "There were no skilled workmen, of course. and consequently no powder, ex- cept the coarser sort used in blasting, was | produced in the South. It lacked salt | petre it lacked lead. it lacked copper, it | lacked iron. it lacked leather, 1t lac ked money-it lacked everything. And yet Tn | a short time all these were found-copper l for field artillery: percussion caps; salt petre for the manufacture of gdnpowder; | lead for cartridges; iron for guns and machinery; leather for shoes, for harness; and, in fact. everything else that was required to carry on long struggle was forthcoming"
 This is an old story to every Southerner. I alr hav- and old iron of every description was saved on every plantation to be used as shot and shell, but to the rest of the world all this must read as indeed a ! strange story.
 | Only a rev days ago an old Con nfeder- ate captain was telling me: we had no guns to speak of till we fought and took them. and no blankets nor much clothes nor that sort of thing till we fought and got them. but we hadn't been out long before we were well fixed up!'
 Of the women of our land Professor Lee
 writes: Tn the efforts of the South its woman displayed great heroism; by every means they encouraged and supported
 those who fought for the stars and bars
 They endured privation; they suffered
 from bitter want with earnest and un.
 complaining courage. Old clothing was
 trimmed and retrimmed for growing chill dren: thorns and pegs were employed as
 pins; China berries and persimmon seeds
 were converted into buttons; substitutes including rye, were found for tea and coffee; and countless other inventions
 were created by the necessities of the times. Every loom on the plantation was set to work; shoes, stockings. and cloth ing were made for those in the field as we'll as those at home. Every effort was
 made to aid the cause of the South. '' This, too, is an old story to us-but let the writers write never so fully not the half of the tale will ever be told to the rest of the world.
 Through the story of the early sue cesses of the Southern army, the cam
 paigns of the West, the war in Virginia
 Lees invasions. the horrors of Sherman, march to the surrender at Appomattox Prof. Lee carries the reader, making ev cry event alive with vivid and sure touch A masterly chapter on Reconstruction ends the volume.