Corporal Corpulent?

Posted on April 12, 2013 by SUMPTER

From a Seneca County, New York newspaper in April 1863:

A Young Corporal.

The Rochester Union says that a private letter from an officer in the 20th Reg. N.Y.S.V., to a friend in that city states that a Corporal in the regiment last week gave birth to an infant. It was not until quite recently that the sex of the Corporal was discovered. Her husband is a Sergeant in the regiment. She enlisted as a private and was promoted for good conduct.

Pregnancy would kind of put a dent in any 1860s version of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”

The only official policy was against female recruits, but as Karen Abbott writes in an interesting article at Wonders & Marvels, “Male soldiers who knew or suspected there was a woman in the ranks were usually impressed by her patriotism and bravery, and chose to keep her secret.” Sometimes women outed themselves by behaving characteristically for women of 150 years ago. For example,

Two women serving with the 95th Illinois Infantry were outed when an officer threw apples to them. They were dressed in full military uniform, but instinctively made a grab for the hem of their nonexistent aprons in order to catch the fruit.

According to Ms. Abbott six women served while pregnant during the Civil War.

The 20th New York Infantry Regiment was a two year regiment mustered in during May 1861. There is a ton of information about the regiment, also known as the United Turner Rifles, here.

So far I haven’t seen any other mention of a female corporal in the 20th.

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granular analysis

Posted on April 11, 2013 by SUMPTER
Milledge Luke Bonham

Bonham represented S.C. in old U.S.

In a message to the state legislature South Carolina governor Milledge Luke Bonham identified several reasons for food shortages in his state: the law prohibiting liquor production was not being obeyed or enforced; the law limiting cotton production to three acres was actually encouraging farmers who had no plans to grow cotton to plant up to the limit because the legislature apparently deemed it patriotic to do so; speculators were inflating the price of grain by buying it and either holding it off the local market or exporting it. All of this especially injured those families whose “producing force is in the army” because they were less able to supply their own food.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch April 10, 1863:

Message of the Governor of South Carolina.

An extra session of the South Carolina Legislature, called by the Governor, commenced at Columbia on Monday. The Governor, in his message, says that the distillation of spirits from the cereal grains of the State, though prohibited by law, is yet a great and growing evil, and seriously felt in the grain-growing districts. With relation to the cotton crop and speculation he says:

It is much feared, that while your act to limit the production of cotton to three acres to the full hand will restrain such as having overflowing granaries, contemplate withholding their grain from market and planting cotton almost exclusively, it has yet induced many, as I am informed, who purposed planting little if any cotton, to plant the full number of acres allowed by law. And this is justified upon the ground that your statute is equivalent to an announcement by the chosen representatives of the people that such a course is not unpatriotic. If this feeling prevails extensively it will be readily perceived what must be the result. All fertilizers will be put on the cotton lands to stimulate them to the highest production, while the corn lands will be thus proportionately impoverished. In my first message in January last, in commending to your favorable consideration the Georgia law, I recommended the reduction of the number of acres below three. With the lights now before me I recommend an amendment of your act, so as to prohibit the planting over a half, or, at most, one acre to the full hand and that the hands to be enumerated shall only be such as work in the crop. I invite your first attention to this subject, and recommend, in the event a further restriction is imposed, that the two Houses ratify the act immediately after its passage.

Colton's South Carolina 1865 (g3910 cw0358700 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3910.cw0358700 )

limiting exports

The spirit of speculation has recently made such alarming strides in this State as to render your interposition necessary to arrest the evil.–Large sums are invested in flour, corn, bacon, and other articles of prime necessity, to the monopoly, almost, of such articles in certain sections of the country, and they are withheld from market, or exported beyond the limits of the State, to the great enhancement of prices, and to the manifest injury of consumers, especially the families of those whose producing force is in the army. Under these circumstances, I have called into exercise the power conferred upon me by the Constitution, to prohibit, for thirty days, the exportation of provision from the State, but with some modifications which I felt were due to our sister States and the Confederate Government. I have not gone, so far, beyond the retention of these articles within the limits of the State, and your action is requisite to enable me to carry fully into effect this clause of the Constitution, as also to continue the prohibition without interruption, if you should deem it advisable. I recommend the passage of an act which will authorize the Governor, through proper agents, to dispose, at their market value, such articles as have been or may be seized in transitu and after paying all expenses incurred out of the proceeds to retain a certain proportion, to be distributed among the Soldiers’ Boards of Relief, the remainder to be returned to the owner — or such other appropriate legislation as you may deem better adapted to the case. I also recommend that you adopt some legislation to arrest the purchase and monopoly of articles of prime necessity, even when it is not intended to export them beyond the limits of the State. The monopoly and withholding from market of supplies is most detrimental to the true interests of the whole country, now involved in such a war as has not been seen in modern times.

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Our barns should be bulging

Posted on April 10, 2013 by SUMPTER
The Chattanooga daily rebel. (Chattanooga, Tenn.), 09 Aug. 1862. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress. <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82015209/1862-08-09/ed-2/seq-1/>

barns should be ” loaded to over flowing next fall.”

Hope springs eternal?

Food was scarce throughout the Confederacy in the spring of 1863. “In a dozen or more cities and hamlets from Richmond to Mobile, desperate women raided shops or supply depots for food.”[1] A week after the Richmond Bread Riot a newspaper in the Confederate capital found the early wheat crop promising in three southern states.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch April 9, 1863:

The crops.

From different quarters of the Confederacy we receive encouraging accounts of the prospects of the growing crops of wheat. The Rome (Ga.)Courier says “from what it has seen and heard, the wheat crop is looking fine, and promised well.”

A farmer of long experience and observation, writes to the Chattanooga Rebel, from Middle Tennessee, as follows: “There has never been in my recollection, a session which afforded us so much hope. The wheat is coming up beautifully, fresh and lively. I calculate to raise a large overplus beyond last year.”Others verbally and by letter confirm this statement. The editor add[s]: “The gentle rains of spring now coming with April weather, will, by the goodness of God, give us barns loaded to over flowing next fall. We have only to collect our crop.”

The papers state that the wheat crop in Mississippi lo[o]ks very promising — in fact, it could not look better. There is a large surface of soil in wheat, promising flour in abundance after the May harvest. If there are no more frosts the opinion is expressed that Mississippi will furnish wheat enough to supply half the Confederacy in flour for the next year.

The Yankee armies in Tennessee and Mississippi might appreciate this news too.
The (Chattanooga) Daily Rebel was another Southern paper that had to move to keep ahead of Union armies. It ended up in Selma, Alabama, where Federal troops destroyed the presses in April 1865. The editors stressed the importance of the press:

On September 27, 1862, the Rebel ran an article championing the press’s vital role in wartime communications. The piece was entitled “The Importance of the Press in Time of War” and was signed, “PRINTER.” It strongly emphasized the importance of (the Confederate) press to both the government and military, as well as citizens. “The importance of the Press in time of war to the spirit of the army is incalculable. It is, as one of our correspondents observes, ‘the only medium of organized public opinion—the only source of communication between the Government and the people, and which if silenced (as the Senate and House propose) would leave these wise bodies themselves practically as voiceless as the grave.’”

Southern women feeling the effects of the rebellion, and creating bread riots (Illus. in: Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, (1863 May 23), p. 141.; LOC: LC-USZ62-42028)

New wheat crop should make this a one-off at the ‘Nemesis Bakery’

  1. [1]McPherson, James M. The Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. New York: Ballantine Books, 1989. Print. page 617.↩
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Stamp Tax

Posted on April 9, 2013 by SUMPTER

One of the ways the Revenue Act of 1862 provided funds to pay for the Civil War was by various excise and stamp taxes. Here a Richmond newspaper reports on the revenue headed to the U.S. Treasury on the death of a wine mogul.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch April 6, 1863:

A Dear Stamp.

–Under the U. S. Congressional Stamp act, it cost the executors of Nicholas Longworth, the “Catawba” wine man, $430 to purchase a stamp to put upon his will. Not long ago such a stamp tax would have been considered incredible.

And about 98 years earlier American colonists protested the imposition of a stamp tax by their British rulers. In fact, the Stamp Act Congress is considered ” the first gathering of elected representatives from several of the American colonies to devise a unified protest against new British taxation.” Of course, the 1862 legislation was enacted by elected representatives, so that was a big difference with the colonial taxation.

Nicholas Longworth is considered Father of the American Wine Industry. He developed a market for his wine made with the Catawba by selling it to German immigrants to the Cincinnati area. His business really picked when he developed an excellent sparkling Catawba to compete with European champagnes. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote an “Ode to Catawba Wine”. The Harper’s Weekly of March 7, 1863 (at Son of the South) published a long obituary of the “Western millionaire”.

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” some ugly pock marks”

Posted on April 8, 2013 by SUMPTER

Not exactly the Union objective

"New Map of Charleston Harbor" "Showing the Scene of the Great Naval Contest between the Iron Clad Monitors and the Rebel Batteries, also the Lines of Fire, Forts, Obstructions, Princ'l. Plantations, & E.t.c." Lithograph by J. Mayer & Co., published in 1863 by G.W. Tomlinson, Boston, Massachusetts (U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.)

Charleston and vicinity

150 years ago yesterday a federal fleet commanded by Samuel F. Du Pont tried to take a first step toward capturing Charleston, South Carolina by attacking Fort Sumter. The attack was unsuccessful.

From The New-York Times April 13, 1863:

CHARLESTON.; Our Own Accounts of the Attack On Fort Sumter. The Iron-Clads Under Fire Two Hours. They Endure a Concentric Fire from Five Different Points for Thirty Minutes. Thirty-five Hundred Shots Fired by the Rebels. ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY IN A MINUTE. The Passage of Fort Sumter Prevented by Obstructions. Five of the Monitors Only Slightly Damaged. THE KEOKUK RIDDLED AND SUNK. THE CASUALTIES VERY LIGHT. CASUALTIES ON THE NAHANT. CASUALTIES ON KEOKUK.

BALTIMORE, Sunday, April 12, 1863.

I have just reached this point from Charleston Harbor via Fortress Monroe, by the gunboat Flambeau, bringing official dispatches from Admiral DUPONT.

The iron-clad fleet, in its attack on Fort Sumter, has met with a repulse, but not a disaster. The attack was made on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 7th inst., and continued for two hours and a half. The fleet had all been got over the bar the day previous, and lay at anchor in the main ship channel along the shore of Morris Island, at a distance of about a mile.

The line of battle was formed in the following order:

1. The Weehawken, Capt. J. RODGERS.

2. The Passaic, Capt. PERCIVAL DRAYTON.

3. The Montauk, Commander J.L. WORDEN.

4. The Patapsco, Commander D. AMMON.

5. The Ironsides, Commander T. TURNER.

6. The Katskill, Commander G.W. RODGERS.

7. The Nantucket, Commander D. MCN. FAIRFAX.

9. The Nahant, Commander J. DOWNS.

9. The Keokuk, Commander A.C. RHIND.

The Ironsides was Admiral DUPONT’s flag-ship.

The official order was to pass the batteries on Morris Island without returning their fire, and pass inside of Fort Sumter, and devote themselves to bombarding Fort Sumter at a distance of from six to eight hundred yards.

At 2 o’clock the head of the line was in motion, the rest following. The batteries on Morris Island did not open on the fleet at all, and the enemy made no fire until the fleet had reached a position between Forts Sumter and Moultrie, when a terrific broadside came from the barbette guns of Sumter. At the same time the batteries on Cnmmings Point and Sullivan’s Island opened, and the iron ships were exposed to a concentric fire from five different points, unparalleled in the history of warfare.

The great fight at Charleston S.C. April, 7th 1863: between 9 United States "Iron-Clads," under the command of Admiral Dupont; and Forts Sumter, Moultrie, and the Cummings Point Batteries in possession of the rebels ( New York : Published by Currier & Ives, c1863; LOC: LC-DIG-ppmsca-31065)

4-7-1863

The fleet found it impossible to pass up beyond Fort Sumter and assume to appointed place, owing to obstructions, which extended across the entire channel from Sumter and Moultrie, while above these, near the middle ground, were three other rows of piles, and above these three rebel iron-clads. The fleet was thus compelled to sustain this terrific fire, and nobly it did so, for thirty minutes. During that time not less than thirty-five hundred shots were fired by the enemy, one hundred and sixty being counted in a single minute.

At the end of this time five of the nine iron-clads were found to be more or less disabled, and at 4 o’clock the flagship signaled to retire.

The Keokuk, with splendid audacity, had run up to within five hundred yards of the fort, and near her was the Katskill. The whole fleet devoted themselves to Fort Sumter; but, owing to the limited time the ships were enabled to remain, comparatively few shots were fired.

The Ironsides, caught in the tide, was in great part unmanageable. In consequence, Admiral DUPONT had to signal to the fleet to disregard the movements of the flag-ship.

The iron-clads received each from twenty to ninety shots. The Keokuk was the worst used up, receiving several shots below and above the water line. The other four, though in reality but slightly injured, were yet rendered temporarily unfit for use. They will speedily be repaired. The Keokuk was, however, so badly damaged that she sunk this morning in the position near her original anchorage. She will be blown up, to prevent her falling into the hands of the rebels.

Fort Sumpter shows some ugly pock marks on her eastern face.

The land force had been landed on Folly Island, near Stono, but did not co-operate in the attack.

The attack should really be regarded in the light of a reconnoissance, and though it was not successful, yet it was not as disastrous as it might have been. When you learn the full details you will see that the result is, on the whole, far from discouraging.

Commander J. Downs, Massachusetts, slight contusion of foot, from piece of iron, loosened in pilot-house.

Pilot Isaac Scofield, New-York, severe contusion neck and shoulders, from flying bolt in pilot-house. Is doing well.

Quartermaster Edward Cobb, Massachusetts — compound fracture of skull from flying bolt in pilot-house. He has since died.

John McAllister, seaman, Canada — concussion of brain from flying bolt in turret. Doing well. …

… The advantage of our fleet being in possession of the main ship channel, narrows the circuit of the blockade two-thirds of the former distance. None of the batteries fired upon our vessels until the latter reached the vicinity of the main forts.

In reviewing this battle the Harper’s Weekly of April 25, 1863 (provided by Son of the South) admitted a Union failure that “insures an indefinite prolongation of the war”. But the blessing in disguise was that the people of the North were becoming a tougher, more persevering people in their effort to keep the Union together:

No one who watches the public mind can have helped observing the improvement which we are making in stoutheartedness. A few months ago a little defeat depressed us woefully, and depreciated the currency six to eight per cent. Now, the public accept defeats as well as victories as the natural incidents of war, and are neither excessively depressed by the one nor unduly elated by the other. Du Pont’s repulse at Charleston, which was certainly not palliated or glossed over in the accounts in the papers, gave rise to no despair, to no abuse of Du Pont or the Government, and barely caused a flutter in the gold market.

This nation is being educated to its work. The race of ninety-day prophets—who did us so much harm at the beginning, and made us so ridiculous abroad—is about extinct. No one now undertakes to say how soon we shall crush the rebellion. But no one doubts that we sh[a]ll do so sooner or later. We may meet with more repulses …

The USS Keokuk had a very short career. It sailed out of New York harbor on March 11, 1863 and sunk in Charleston Harbor on April 8, 1863 as a result of the shelling it took during the April 7th battle.

Having joined the U.S. Navy in 1815, Samuel Francis Du Pont had a very long career, but Charleston took a toll on him, too:

The Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, blamed Du Pont for the highly publicized failure at Charleston. Du Pont himself anguished over it and, despite an engagement in which vessels under his command defeated and captured a Confederate ironclad, was relieved of command on July 5, 1863, at his own request. Though he enlisted the help of Maryland U.S. Representative Henry Winter Davis to get his official report of the incident published by the Navy, an ultimately inconclusive congressional investigation into the failure essentially turned into a trial of whether Du Pont had misused his ships and misled his superiors. Du Pont’s attempt to garner the support of President Abraham Lincoln was ignored, and he returned home to Delaware. He returned to Washington to serve briefly on a board reviewing naval promotions.

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A Benevolent Union in Richmond?

Posted on April 6, 2013 by SUMPTER

Five days after the Richmond Bread Riot the following report was published in the Richmond Daily Dispatch of April 7, 1863:

Relief for the poor.

–For the purpose of relieving the wants and necessities of the wives and families of our brave soldiery in the field as well as the honest poor generally, the following arrangements have been made.

A committee of forty-eight gentleman, two for each of the twenty four districts, will be appointed in co-operation with the ladies of the Union Benevolent Society, to visit each family in the city, uncertain its actual condition, and furnish tickets the holder to such supplies as may be received at the depot. Two depots have been established.

1st. Corner of 6th and Clay streets–C Bates Superintendent.
2d. On Cary, between 14th and 15th streets–Jno Lyon, Superintendent.

Committee.
1st District.–1st street, below Cary, out west, including Penitentiary Hill– Geo Gibson …

The committee will processed [proceed?] at once to visit the poor and distribute tickets

Supplies may be sent to the Superintendents at their depots.

Contributions in money may be handed to the Visiting Committee, or to Wm P Munford Treasurer.

The Union Benevolent Society was founded in 1836 as an ecumenical woman’s group. Two visitors were assigned to each of 20 Richmond districts to ascertain needs and possible ways for the poor to improve their lot. It started a small “Depository of Work” and “distributed clothing, blankets, fuel, and money to the poor in the city” throughout the antebellum years[1]

The Society’s 1860 annual report showed a big focus on fuel. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch November 15, 1860:

Union Benevolent Society.

–The annual report of this Society shows that the labors of the Visitors have been arduous, and that they have performed them in the most satisfactory manner, thereby ameliorating the condition of the poor of the city and of the suburbs.–The Visitors, while administering to the temporal wants of the poor, pay some attention to their spiritual welfare, and labor zealously to improve their morals. To effect this object, they distribute a large number of religions tracts, and by persuasion and kindness, induce indigent children to attend the various Sabbath Schools and churches.

During the past year the Society received donations of fuel to the amount of 550 bushels of coal and eighteen cords of wood — in addition to which they purchased eight thousand two hundred and twelve and a half bushels of coal, and sixty-three cords of wood, at a cost of $1,597.50. …

To be prepared to carry on the good work in which they are engaged, the Society have appointed collectors, to call upon our citizens, and it is to be hoped that every one will be prepared to give something. Let the rich and the middle classes give according to their means — let all feel it to be a religious duty to give something — and the needy will have reason to rejoice that their lots are cast among the truly charitable.

Back to 150 years ago this week – there was some positive information about the guns part of the guns-butter Confederate economy. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch April 4, 1863:

Large Elephant of Nitre.

–We learn, says the Knoxville Register, that on Saturday last Capt. T. J. Finnis shipped from Knoxville, Jonesboro’, and Zollicoffer,fifty two thousand six hundred and seventy five barrels of nitre. When Capt. Finn’s was appointed to this district it was a forlorn hope. Yet by his energy and fact he has made it abundantly productive. The may now will be ranked at second in importance to none in the public defence. But for the establishment of the Nitre and Mining Bureau we would not now be able to hold the field against our remorseless foe, for the want of powder and lead.

It is written that East Tennessee was Confederate Niter District Seven.

  1. [1]Green, Elna C. This business of relief: confronting poverty in a Southern city, 1740-1940. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2003. Print. page 49.↩
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Poles are to Russia …

Posted on April 5, 2013 by SUMPTER
Russian army looting Polish manor during January Uprising (Anonymous plate after Władysław Bakałowicz (1831-1904))

Russian soldiers seeking Polish ‘beauty and booty’?

… like Southerners are to the United States

A Richmond editorial ridiculed Yankee vanity and found common cause with Polish rebels fighting Russian despotism. European recognition and/or intervention is pretty much a lost cause.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch April 4, 1863:

Certified vanity.

The insurrection in Poland is called in the United States as a lucky event for the fortunes of despotism on this continent, because it will give the Western European Powers, and especially France, plenty to do at home, without troubling themselves about American affairs. The advantage is rather imaginary than real. There was no reason before the Polish insurrection occurred to anticipate any intervention of Europe on behalf of the South. England has stubbornly resolved to take no part in our quarrel, and France does not make any important move without England.

The Death Zouaves (żuawi śmierci) unit, organized by Francois Rochebrune, of the Polish January Uprising of 1863. Painting by K. Sariusz-Wolski, published in 1909.

Polish rebel Zouaves of Death

In another respect the United States will derive little aid and comfort from the Polish rebellion. It is one of the vainest of nations, and its vanity has been inordinately fed by the attention it has lately attracted in the civilized world. It did not much care how it was spoken of, so it was only spoken of. It enjoyed amazingly the sensation its great war was awakening in Europe, and its journals eagerly copied, and its people hungrily devoured every London and Paris newspaper article which its sayings and doings elicited. Its vast armies and fleets were intended to astonish Europe as well as subjugate the South, and its conquering heroes revelled in the idea of a world-wide notoriety.–Now it must stand back and divide with the Great Bear the notoriety of which it is so covetous. The Old World can devote henceforth but little attention to American affairs, and the United States, must content itself with a contracted provincial reputation.

Russian army in Warsaw 1861 during martial law

Russian army in Warsaw 1861 during martial law

The world always admires reality, and never permits itself to be interested by sham when it can get a genuine article. The Emperor of Russia is a bona fide glint [giant?] in war, an open and above-board despot, who never pretended to know the meaning of popular or national rights and who has not crept through obscure and tortuous bye-ways to a tyrant’s place and power. Moreover, when he shall call into the field an army of a million of men all Europe understands that it will not be an army in buskram; when he puts down his foot firmly a continent trembles under his tread. The interests of Western Europe, and of the civilization of the world, are intimately interwoven with the foreign policy of the Czar, and they will scarcely turn a glance Westward, till the gigantic struggle at their own threshold has terminated. The U. S. have never at any time absorbed much of the attention of mankind, except as the prolific plantation of cotton and tobacco. The present war has given it a degree of notoriety which it never before possessed; an evil reputation, it is true, but that was more acceptable to its people than no reputation at all. It must now be content to subside into comparative [obs]curity, and to sink from starring it to becoming a provincial stock actor of inconsiderable celebrity. The South, which is not fighting for fame, but for life and all that makes life dear, has no reason to be mortified by the sensation which another gallant people, fighting like itself in the cause of national independence, is producing in Europe. On the contrary, our own hearts are cheered by the inspiring resistance to tyrants which is being roused in Europe as well as America. The Poles are a nation of historic renown, struggling for their proper place among the nations with a self-sacrificing patriotism, which years of oppression seem not able to extinguish.–Let the North take warning by events in Europe. A nation of whereas may be conquered, but they cannot be kept down. Though crushed to earth they will rise again and again, and so long as the breath of life remains, will, at every opportunity, assert and re-assert their independence.

The January Uprising (January 22, 1863 – 1865)

began as a spontaneous protest by young Poles against conscription into the Imperial Russian Army, and was soon joined by high-ranking Polish-Lithuanian officers and various politicians. The insurrectionists, severely outnumbered and lacking serious outside support, were forced to resort to guerrilla warfare tactics. They failed to win any major military victories or capture any major cities or fortresses …

Battle of Miechów 1863 by Walery Eljasz

Zouaves of Death v. Russians at Battle of Miechów 1863
Date before 1905

Colton's United States shewing the military stations, forts, &c Prepared by J. H. Colton, New York, for the "Rebellion Record." (LOC: g3700 cw0007500 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3700.cw0007500 )

just a “prolific plantation of cotton and tobacco”

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Abundant Virginia

Posted on April 4, 2013 by SUMPTER

Scarcity in the army only due to transportation issues and poorly executed impressments

Two days after the Richmond Bread Riot(squelched by the press to conform to the Secretary of Defense’s wishes) a Richmond paper reproduced an editorial squelching the rumor that the Confederate government was going to abandon Virginia because of scarcity of supplies.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch April 4, 1863:

An Absurd rumor.

–The following sensible remarks, from the Lynchburg, Republican, in connection with a most ridiculous sensation story which has been effort, also, in this city for the last two or three days, we commend to all who may have been timid enough to place any reliance in it:

There was an idle rumor afloat in our city yesterday, to the effect that President Davis was going to issue a proclamation announcing the evacuation of Virginia as a military necessity, growing out of the scarcity of provisions. We hardly suppose that any sensible man has given a moment’s credence to such a senseless report. A moment’s reflection will teach any one capable of being taught a single idea that if the evacuation of Virginia was a military necessity the President would have too much prudence to announce it in an official, bulletin to our enemies; and it is a not less self evident proposition, that to evacuate Virginia for the want of provisions would simply be to “jump from the frying-pan into the fire.” Where would our armies go for better supplies? If the provisions are in North Carolina or Georgia they can be much better transported to the Army of the Potomac than the army can be transported to the provisions. Besides, to abandon Virginia on account of a lack of supplies would be to surrender all we have in Virginia at this time, and all we can promise ourselves by the new crop of coming summer. To give up the most valuable agricultural country in the world to the devastation of the enemy would be a very foolish way to feed our armies.

But the rumor is too silly a one to demand notice, and we have merely alluded to it because there are a great many silly people in the world who can blow a bladder into a balloon of tremendous proportions. Virginia is not going to be evacuated for any cause, and while there may be some scarcity of supplies in our army, it is simply because the necessary transportation has not been available for some time, and because the mode of executing impressments for some time has been such as to deter farmers from sending forth their products to market. There is a plenty in the country to feed our armies until the new crop comes in, and enough of muscle in our army to whip the hosts of fighting Joe Hooker whenever that valiant Yankee may think proper to cross the Rappahannock.

The Confederate impressment law of March 26, 1863 codified the informal impressment that had occurred since 1861 and “directed military officials, with the assistance of state boards of impressments, to buy food, fuel, and other needed commodities.”

A few months after impressment became law, Confederate losses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, combined with high inflation, created a chorus of popular protest. Government price schedules hovered at almost 50 percent below the market rate, outraging farmers and merchants. Adding to their frustration was the uneven way in which goods were impressed. Areas near military campaigns and encamped armies were picked clean, while in other areas impressed goods rotted for lack of transportation. Moreover, it was not uncommon for Southerners to impersonate impressment agents in order to obtain food and fuel to support their own needy families.

The transportation issues probably had something to do with the railroads. On March 30, 1863 The New-York Times ran an article about the importance of the railroads to the South and the fact they were wearing out with little chance of being repaired because of the war and blockade, not to mention a probable labor shortage. The Times correspondence includes this from the Richmond Examiner of March 18, 1863:

“It is a fact, as well known to the enemy as to ourselves, that all the country in the vicinity of our armies has long been stripped of its provisions and forage, and that these armies depend for their existence and maintenance of their present positions upon the railroads. The railroads of this State are on the point of wearing out. They have decreased their speed to ten miles an hour as a maximum rate, and are carrying twenty five to fifty per cent. less tonnage than formerly. * * The wood-work of the roads has rotted, and the machinery has worn out. * * We are not informed of the actual condition of the railroads in the more Southern States, but conceive they are little better off than our own, except in the matter of negro labor. * * Railroads are a part, and an indispensable part, of our military system; and if they are allowed to fall through from any cause, Government and people may prepare for the retreat of our armies, and the surrender of much of the valuable country now in our possession.”

Lloyd's map of the southern states showing all the railroads, their stations & distances, also the counties, towns, villages, harbors, rivers, and forts. 1862 (http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?ammem/gmd:@field%28NUMBER+@band%28g3860+rr001380%29%29)

Southern states in 1862 with their gradually rotting railroads

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supply side Sleight of hand

Posted on April 3, 2013 by SUMPTER
Shows railroad lines emanating south and east of Atlanta going toward Macon and Columbus, Ga., with a notation "125 miles from Atlanta to Andersonville [Prison]." by Robert Knox Sneden

stowing away the corn in Columbus

“Supply and Demand” an “old standard”

James Seddon, the Confederate Secretary of War pleaded with newspapers not to publish accounts of the April 2, 1863 Richmond Bread Riot. Nevertheless, 150 years ago today a Richmond paper was able to continue one of its main themes – one of the underlying causes of the seeming scarcity was speculation throughout the South.

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch April 4, 1863:

“Shall speculators be longer Tolerated?”

–Under the above heading the Columbus (Ga.)Enquirer thus writes:

It is apparent to every observing men that speculation has much to do with the prevailing high prices. The old standard of “supply and demand” is constantly referred to by those who apologize for speculation; and it is insisted that nothing but a scarcity inadequate to the demand enhances prices. This test would be a good one if all the supply was in market for sale. But the face [fact?] is notorious that immense supplies of provisions are held up by speculators for still higher prices. We have no doubt of the truth of the assertion that there was never before half the amount of corn stowed away in Columbus, as at the present time; yet the article commands a Signer [higher?] price than it has for many years before. It has been bought for speculation, and the speculators are still buying, and prices constantly advancing. That the heavy operations of these dealers have run up the only kind of breadstuffs that the great make of the people can at present afford to eat, to the prevailing extraordinary price, is beyond question.

It is believed, moreover, that the store rooms of deniers contain very large quantities of sugar, syrup, salt, etc., which are not offered for sale at even the high prices now ruling, but are held up for still higher figures. It is not so much an inadequate supply as the withdrawal of that supply from market, that makes scarcity and high prices.

Up North it was reported that the federal government had found a way to intervene in the quinine market to make that market work better.

From The New-York Times April 1, 1863:

… The day after the publication in the TIMES of the intention of the Medical Department to manufacture its own quinine, the price of that article declined 33 per cent., and within a day or two past the Department has received propositions from parties in New-York and Philadelphia, offering to furnish the drug at a reduction of 70 cents per ounce. Speculators in the article have lost heavily. …

Quinine was, and still is, used to treat malaria and other fevers. A surgeon in one Connecticut regiment wrote, “In one pocket I carried quinine, in the other morphine and whiskey in my canteen”. As with other important products the Confederacy developed quinine substitutes, which I guess is another way to deal with supply issues.

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Let them read papers

Posted on April 2, 2013 by SUMPTER
Daily Dispatch January 14, 1852

Keeping your youngsters out of the grog shop

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch April 2, 1863:

Give your child a Newspaper.

–A child beginning to read becomes delighted with a newspapers, because he reads of names and things which are very familiar, and will make progress accordingly. A newspaper in one year is worth a quarter’s schooling to a child, and every father must consider that substantial information is connected with advancement.

A mind occupied becomes fortified against the ills of life, and is braced for any emergency. Children amused by reading and study are, of course, more considerate and more easily governed. How many thoughtless young men have spent their evenings in a tavern or grog shop who ought to have been reading! How many parents who have not spent twenty dollars for books for their families, would have given thousands to reclaim a son or daughter who had ignorantly and thoughtlessly fallen into temptation.

James Alexander Seddon

Please! don’t publish fodder for Yankee propaganda

Of course, in 1863 Richmond children would have been reading a good deal of slave culture propaganda. The Library of Congress chronicles the pro-slavery stance of Dispatch publisher James A. Cowardin

It seems somehow ironic that this article was published on the same day as the Richmond Bread Riot. I scanned ahead about a week in the Dispatch but not notice any obvious reports on the April 2nd disturbance. As the Encyclopedia Virginia points out:

Although the riot was over in two hours, it had shocked locals. Many believed that the rioters did not “suffer real want,” while others accused outside agitators of causing the fracas. Confederate secretary of war James A. Seddon implored the local press not to publish accounts of the disturbance for fear it would fuel Union propaganda and undermine morale at home. To some extent Seddon succeeded, but Union prisoners of war in Richmond reported what they saw and the New York Times ran a front-page article about the bread riot on April 8, 1863.

City of Richmond 1864, Hotchkiss map collection ; no. 177

Could you shew us where the bread riot was?

This story struck a chord with me. As a kid I used to listen to Syracuse University football games on Saturday afternoon and read all about it in the next day’s newspaper. I have a faint memory of the incandescent light bulb going off – oh, that’s how you spell Csonka. And yes, in my lifetime paper newspapers have become so passe.

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