A source of universal alarm in the South, at this period, was the deficiency of food. We have elsewhere quoted freely the admonitions of President Davis respecting the question of supplies, and indicating the cause which led to so much suffering in the armies of the Confederacy. Ever since the loss of large sections of Tennessee, in the spring of 1862, this subject had occasioned anxiety. Without entering into details, it may be briefly stated, that, with the loss of Kentucky and the larger portion of Tennessee, the Confederacy lost the main source of its supplies of meat. As other sections were occupied by the enemy, and communications were destroyed, the area of the Confederacy became more and more contracted, and its sources of supply still more limited. Even when supplies were abundant in many quarters, the armies in the field suffered actual want, in consequence of the want of transportation, and of the remoteness of the supplies from the lines of the railroads.
But while the meat in the Confederacy was rapidly diminishing in quantity, as the Federal armies advanced, and seized or destroyed every thing in the shape of subsistence, the army was still deprived of supplies which should have been made available. The unpatriotic practice of hoarding supplies—a temptation suggested by the rife spirit of speculation, arising from a redundant and depreciated currency—necessitated the passage of impressment laws. These laws were practically rendered nugatory by the inadequate provisions for their execution. In no respect was the timid and demagogical legislation of the Confederate Congress, so illustrated as by its adoption of a system of impressment, which aggravated the very evil it was designed to remedy.
Various expedients were attempted, with partial success, for obtaining subsistence beyond the limits of the Confederacy. It will be readily seen, however, how precarious was this dependence. It was impossible for the Confederacy to maintain its armies, while its resources in every other respect were rapidly reaching the point of exhaustion. In the end the want of food proved the most efficient adversary of the South. The final military catastrophe made the Federal army master of a country already half conquered by starvation.[70]
CHAPTER XVII.
AN EFFORT TO BLACKEN THE CHARACTER OF THE SOUTH—THE PERSECUTION OF MR. DAVIS AS THE SUBSTITUTE FOR THE ASSUMED OFFENSES OF THE SOUTH—REPUTATION OF THE SOUTH FOR HUMANITY—TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR—EARLY ACTION OF THE CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT UPON THE SUBJECT—MR. DAVIS’ LETTER TO MR. LINCOLN—THE COBB-WOOL NEGOTIATIONS—PERFIDIOUS CONDUCT OF THE FEDERAL AUTHORITIES—A CARTEL ARRANGED BY GENERALS DIX AND HILL—COMMISSIONER OULD—HIS CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE FEDERAL AGENT OF EXCHANGE—REPEATED PERFIDY OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT—SUSPENSION OF THE CARTEL CAUSED BY THE BAD FAITH OF THE FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION, AND THE SUFFERING WHICH IT CAUSED—EFFORTS OF THE CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES TO RENEW THE OPERATION OF THE CARTEL—HUMANE OFFER OF COMMISSIONER OULD—JUSTIFICATION OF THE CONFEDERATE AUTHORITIES—GUILT OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT—MR. DAVIS’ STATEMENT OF THE MATTER—COLONEL OULD’S LETTER TO MR. ELDRIDGE—NORTHERN STATEMENTS: GENERAL BUTLER, NEW YORK TRIBUNE, ETC.—THE CHARGE OF CRUELTY AGAINST THE SOUTH—A CONTRAST BETWEEN ANDERSONVILLE AND ELMIRA—IMPOVERISHMENT OF THE SOUTH—DISREPUTABLE MEANS EMPLOYED TO AROUSE RESENTMENT OF THE NORTH—THE VINDICATION OF THE SOUTH AND OF MR. DAVIS—HIS STAINLESS CHARACTER, HIS HUMANITY AND FORBEARANCE—AN INQUIRY OF HISTORY.
It is in vain to invoke the admiration of mankind for qualities of greatness, displayed either in the history of a nation or the life of an individual, unless those qualities shall have been adorned by the practice of humanity and the observance of high moral obligation. Since the political fabric of the South has been overthrown, a brave and virtuous people cherish with a more tenacious affection than ever, that honorable reputation which was their birthright, and which they worthily illustrated during the late war. The violent commotion with which the American Union was but lately convulsed has renewed the historical analogy of revolutions, not less in the sequel than in its progress. When the strife of arms was ended, and the two great armies ceased their death struggles, and parted with that mutual respect which is characteristic of brave antagonists, events were far from encouraging the cessation of sectional bitterness which was to be hoped for.
The dominant party at the North, apparently not satisfied with the political overthrow of the South, and the complete extinction of its social system, has followed up the triumphs of the Federal armies with a persistent and implacable war upon the character and reputation of the South. To affix a stigma upon a conquered foe, to brand with infamy a class of their own countrymen—the descendants of the compatriots of Franklin, Hancock, and Adams—and to consign to perpetual obloquy a cause which enlisted the sympathies of five millions of people, are the aims of a malignant and remorseless faction. These are the motives which have instigated the effort to frame an indictment against the Christianity, the morality, and the humanity of the South, and to visit every form of degradation, to practice every refinement of cruelty upon its most distinguished representative.