time, unless specially ordered so to do by a general Commanding, in a case of exigency, impress supplies which were on their way to market for sale on arrival."

The construction given to that order filled the land with purchasers-private individuals, railroad companies, manufacturers of all kinds, corporations of every class, relief associations of cities, towns and counties, were per sonally or by their agents in the market buying a year's supply, unlimited as to price, and protected from impressment. Speculators, whose purchases were generally in transitu, found themselves protected, and the government playing into their hands. The sudden influx of purchasers into the market stimulated the cupidity of producers and holders of the necessaries of life, and induced them to withhold their supplies, under the expectation of higher prices, and actually raised the prices of all the prime articles fully one hundred per cent. within a single month. The purchasing officers of the government could not buy; nor was it reasonable to expect parties to sell to the government at schedule price, when double that price was offered at their doors by others. They could not impress, for holders had, with great promptness, contracted for all their supplies to parties who paid them higher prices, and thus it naturally and surely happened that the regular supplies of the government were cut off. The whole land was infected by speculators pampered by Mr. Seddon, the Secretary of War; and the soldier, who was without shelter fighting our battles, found himself discriminated against in favour of the private citizen-who, with a roof above him, could better stand a short allowance of food,—and put at the mercy of the most heartless and hateful speculators, who had no conception of the war beyond that of dollars and cents.

It has been remarked that the shiftlessness of the people of the South, their want of commercial tact or of business knowledge, so to speak, however it might have been doubted before, was fully proved in the war, and that this cause, as much as anything else, contributed to the ruin and prostration of the Confederacy. The unbusiness-like mind of the South was well illustrated in its commissariat; and the mismanagement of this bureau confirms the truth of the general observation. It is curious, indeed, how this observation extends to all the affairs of the Confederacy. There was a stock of childish expedients in times of grave distress in the Confederacy, at which the world was rather disposed to laugh, despite the necessities they indicated. When iron became scarce, an association of ladies was formed to advertise an appeal all through the Confederacy for broken pots and pans with which to build an armoured steamer. When the Confederate finances declined, it was proposed by a foolish woman of Mobile, who had probably never heard of the law of supply and demand, that all of her sex in the Confederacy should be shorn, and each head of hair bringing a certain price in the European markets, to realize thus many millions

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 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.

war.

CHAPTER XXX

66 THE

A TRAIN OF CONFEDERATE SUCCESSES IN THE BEGINNING OF 1864.-THE BATTLE OF OCEAN
POND. GEN. SEYMOUR'S EXPEDITION INTO FLORIDA.-ITS DEFEAT AND COMPLETE DISAS-
TER. SHERMAN'S EXPEDITION IN THE SOUTHWEST.-HIS FIRST EXPERIMENT OF
MOVABLE COLUMN."-HIS DESIGNS UPON MOBILE AND THE CONFEDERATE LINES IN NORTH
GEORGIA. THE CO-OPERATING COLUMN OF CAVALRY.-GEN. POLK EVACUATES MERIDIAN,
AND FALLS BACK TO DEMOPOLIS.-FORREST DEFEATS THE FEDERAL CAVALRY.-DISAS-
TROUS AND DISGRACEFUL CONCLUSION OF SHERMAN'S ADVENTURE.—the RED RIVER EX-
PEDITION.-GEN. BANKS' DESIGNS UPON TEXAS. THE CONFEDERATE COMMANDS IN THE
TRANS-MISSISSIPPI.-THE FEDERAL ADVANCE UP RED RIVER. THE CONFEDERATES FALL
BACK TOWARDS SHREVEPORT.-BATTLE OF MANSFIELD.-HOW THE ACTION WAS BROUGHT
ON.-ROUT OF THE ENEMY.-SINGULAR SCENES ON THE PURSUIT.—BATTLE OF PLEASANT
HILL.-AN UNFORTUNATE MISTAKE OF ORDERS.-CHURCHILL'S CORPS PANIC-STRICKEN.—
GEN. WALKER HOLDS THE FIELD. THE ENEMY CONTINUES HIS RETREAT TO ALEXANDRIA.-
HIS MARCH A CAREER OF UNPARALLELED COWARDICE AND CRIME.-LARGE SPOILS OF THE
CONFEDERATES. THE EXTENT OF BANKS' DISASTER.-TERMINATION OF HIS VISION OF
EMPIRE WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI.—FORREST'S EXPEDITION UP THE MISSISSIPPI.—CAPTURE
OF FORT PILLOW.-HOKE'S OPERATIONS ON THE NORTH CAROLINA COAST. COMPARATIVE
UNIMPORTANCE OF THESE CONFEDERATE SUCCESSES.-THE RAID OF ULRIC DAHLGREN.-
THE PARTS OF CUSTER AND KILPATRICK.-FAILURE AND LUDICROUS COWARDICE OF THE
SEVERAL EXPEDITIONS.-DAHLGREN'S
RETREATS, AND IS
CHASED BY POLLARD.-MANNER OF HIS DEATH.-DISCOVERY OF THE DAHLGREN PA-
PERS."-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.

ATROCIOUS DESIGNS.-HE

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 aggre gate, 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.

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