MAKE-SHIFTS OF THE CONFEDERACY. 489 of dollars; and the proposition was seriously entertained in the newspapers. But what shall be said of the government that actually and officially, in the course of a system of finance to meet necessities counted by thousands of millions of dollars, made appeals to the people to donate silver plate and jewelry, and published monthly lists of contributions of rings, sugar-pots and spoons! These curious lists may still be found in the files of the Richmond newspapers. Such vagaries are subjects of grave consideration by the historian. They illustrate the general character of make-shifts in the war. He who seeks to solve the problem of the downfall of the Southern Confederacy, must take largely into consideration the absence of any intelligent and steady system in the conduct of public affairs; the little circles that bounded the Richmond Administration; the deplorable want of the commercial or business faculty in the Southern mind. CHAPTER XXX. A TRAIN OF CONFEDERATE SUCCESSES IN THE BEGINNING OF 1864.-THE BATTLE OF OCEAN SEVERAL EXPEDITIONS.-DAHLGREN'S ATROCIOUS DESIGNS.-HE RETREATS, AND IS 66 CHASED BY POLLARD.-MANNER OF HIS DEATH.-DISCOVERY OF THE DAHLGREN PAPERS."-SENSATION IN RICHMOND.-PRESIDENT DAVIS' MELODRAMA.—STATEMENT OF EDWARD W. HALBACH IN RELATION TO THE DAHLGREN PAPERS."-THE PAPERS FIRST FOUND BY THE SCHOOLBOY LITTLEPAGE.-HOW TRANSMITTED TO RICHMOND. THE THEORY OF FORGERY.-ITS UTTER ABSURDITY. ALTHOUGH the Northern public was gratified in contemplating the sum of Federal victories in the year 1863, it had yet to see in the early months of 1864 a remarkable train of Confederate successes, which, in the aggregate, did much to re-animate the Confederates, and to subdue expectation at Washington. These successes were principally a decisive victory in Florida; the defeat of Sherman's expedition in the Southwest; and a triumphant issue in the most important campaign that had yet taken place west of the Mississippi River. |