Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1905-02-01
IVAN rsngs " THE PIEDMONT.
Ssms ExpsdIenis Rstorisd 10 When Nsees.
,Iiy Became mother Of Invention.
[News aud courier.l ]


III writing of tine home life during
the Confederate war, of course we,
children CT to-day, must depend
entirely upon our parents and grand
parents for "reminiscences Of those
trying times.
About the first shock in the bone
life Of our parents, we may date
from the 10Th of April, 1861, when
Z President Lincoln's proolamatisn n
closed all OUR seaports by q blockade,
Ybiob cut off all our imports and
the products of the manufaptur-
ing States of the North. Immedi-
ately after the bombardment of Fort
Sumter, Apri! IL, 1861, the martial
spirit swept over South Carolina
like hot blast, and the whole atmos.
phere seemed to be but one blast nf
patriotism, which permeated every
nook and corner of the country and
all nature from ay-haired grand
sires to frail women aud little chill
dren, for even the latter were to be
seen drilling with cornstalks for guns
and blowing pumpkin vine horns for
band music.
About the beginning of the ysar
1862 the country's supplies-salt,
sugar, coffee, tea, spices and all i'm
ported necessaries of life-were ex-
hausted. The need of these articles
began to stare people in the face,
and after awhile they began to stir
], themselves and succeeded in pro-
Nducing many things.
Salt was the most costly article of
every day life during the war. 1t
cost as much as sugar does now.
Many Of the old dirt floors of smoke
houses we're dug up, and boiled down
to yet out the waste salt deposited
there from many years. use.
The substitutes for coffee were
parched wheat, rye, corn meal and
sometimes sweet potatoes. Home
made molasses was used in coffee
for swestening. instead of sugar.
For tea, sage leaves, wild spice wood,
sassafras roots and blossoms. Soda
was also very hard to secure, so in
cooking lye from wood ashes was
used.
The summer clothing of the so'-
diers at the front were to be ex-
changed for heavier woollen goods,
and the Confederate Government
was not yet in shape to manufacture
them. My grandfather's sheep, that
were usually shorn of their coats of
wool in May, now had to be robbed
of their winter coats in January, and
penned in warm straw sheds. This
was done in order to get wool to
make the Confederate uniforms to
keep my three uncles, my father and
some neighbofs' boys warm. This
wool, as well ,.s cotton, was spun,
dyed and woven at home under the
supervision of grandmother, who, Gas
well as many other women of the
Confederacy) occupied position of
Importance, in that day, far superior
. to that of the cotton mill superin-
ktendents Of to-day. These women
not only manufactured the woollen
and cotton thread from the crude
state, with homemade spinning
wheels and looms, but they pos
sessed the knowledge enabling them
TO prepare the dye stuffs for the
various colors, which were obtained
from the bark, roots and sometimes
the leaves of trees, shrubs and plants.
The colos were generally "set" by
>lye, made from wood ashes.
g The hat worn by my father during
the war contained the fur from seven
fox and four raccoon skins, taken
from animals caught by him, and
made by Christopher Whistant, a
man that lived then near where Fort
Madison is located. The shoes that
my father wore were also home m ade.
They were made from bome-tanned
hide of calf grown on the farm.