194 Southern Historical Society Pupers.
to battle, relying on the devotion and genius of its people to work out, with the scant mechanical appliances in its borders, the great problem of war.
Our fields were white with cotton, and we had our flocks; but there were not enough factories to make cloth, and the soldier was always ragged, and often naked. Our granaries and fields in the interior were full of corn and wheat and provisions, and we had our cattle and hogs; but there were no shops or rolling mills to replace and repair our worn engines and rails, and the dilapidated railroads could not meet the wants of communities much less supply the need of war, whereby the movement of armies was blocked, and sol- diers at the front starved, while there was plenty in the rear. Tan- ning establishments were so few, that the authorities often had to choose between shoes for the soldier and harness for the artillery and waggons. Even when the former was preferred to the latter, it was often impossible to keep the men shod. Medicines and surgical in- struments were early declared contraband of war, and there was no place in the South where they could be made. It became difficult to obtain the most common surgical instruments and the Confederate surgeon frequently fought fever and wounds, without opiates, qui- nine, or chloroform. Paper became so scarce, and skilled laborers so few, that the Government could not print even its paper promises fast enough to pay its soldiers. Methods hitherto unknown, were availed of to procure nitre. Salt largely disappeared, and, toward the end, sugar, coffee and tea were almost as rare as diamonds. In- deed, the blockade soon reduced the armies and people of the South almost to a state of nature, as regards the necessities and comforts of a civilized condition.
The North, on the contrary, was filled with mines, factories and looms, and had a vast country untouched by the track of the invader, from which to draw supplies and men. A wonderful merchant ma- rine transported from across the seas, everything that the wealth and ingenuity of man could devise for the equipment, comfort and sup- ply of its armies, and the luxury of its people at home.
THE CONFEDERATE SOLDIER IN BATTLE.
The exaltation which came to the Confederate with the first pas- sionate rushing of arms, and the delirium which followed the victory at Manassas, gave way to a higher consecration to duty during the fall and winter months, as there came to his ears notes of the gigan-
