CONFEDERATE STATES. 



249 



ladies assist by sending all their bell metal preserving 

 kettles? I send mine as a beginning. 



A SOUTHERN WOMAN. 

 MOBILB, March 19, 1S62. 



MESSRS. EDITORS : I see a call made through your 

 paper for the ladies of Mobile to send their old prass to 

 make cannon for the defence of our beloved city. I, 

 therefore, send you my mite, hoping that, small as it 

 is, it may be of some use. With many prayers for 

 the success of our beloved cause, I remain, yours re- 

 spectfully. 



GENTS : I send you, as a contribution to the Confed- 

 eracy, the lead weight which was attached to the strik- 

 ing part of my clock, with the hope that every one, not 

 only in our city but in the whole Confederacy, who 

 may have such'withiu their reach, will do likewise. 



But there were other and more important 

 sources for the supply of the munitions of war. 

 Arms must be had or the Government would 

 be vanquished. Swift steamers, freighted in 

 England, were sent out to run the blockade, 

 and while many were captured, others succeed- 

 ed in reaching port. The value of their car- 

 goes, and that of the cotton obtained for the 

 return voyage, was more than sufficient to 

 compensate the owners for the loss of two or 

 three vessels. Munitions of war were also ob- 

 tained from Mexico, whither they had been 

 sent from Europe, and transported through 

 Texas. Large quantities of small arms, cloth- 

 ing, and army wagons were captured from the 

 United States. Manufactories were also put in 

 operation extensively in the Confederate States, 

 and at the close of the year the Government 

 was better supplied with the munitions of war 

 than at any previous period. 



The plan of defensive operations adopted 

 by the Provisional Government at the com- 

 mencement of the war was from necessity con- 

 tinued. At the beginning of the year the 

 Confederate armies were pushed forward to 

 extreme positions on the territory claimed 

 as a part of the Confederacy. On the North 

 their line extended from Columbus, Kentucky, 

 eastward through Bowling Green, the Cum- 

 berland river post, with advances on the Big 

 Sandy and Kanawha rivers, Staunton, Win- 

 chester, Leesburg, Centreville, Aquia Creek 

 and the Potomac. The weak points present- 

 ed by the Tennessee and C umberland rivers were 

 strongly guarded by Forts Henry and Donel- 

 son. This line was on the verge of the North- 

 ern States, and any advance from that quarter 

 would soon meet with resistance. It was 

 quietly occupied chiefly by twelve months' 

 volunteers, confident of their ability to main- 

 tain their ground and feeling a degree of con- 

 temptuous defiance of their adversary. The 

 comparative inactivity of the Federal forces 

 since their defeat from Bull Run had lulled 

 the apprehensions of the Southern people, and 

 even the Confederate Government was repos- 

 ing under an impression of security. This ap- 

 parent inactivity of the Federal forces, however, 

 concealed careful and laborious preparations 

 for a most formidable and overwhelming cam- 

 paign. An expedition had been sent to Port 

 Royal, South Carolina, and another subsequent- 



ly to North Carolina, not only to serve the 

 purpose of seizing important localities and as- 

 sisting the blockade, but to divert the attention 

 of the Confederate Government from the magni- 

 tude of the armies preparing at Washington, 

 Louisville, and Cairo. The only effect which 

 they produced upon the Confederate Govern- 

 ment was to occupy its attention and move it 

 to call for new levies to take the place of the 

 twelve months' volunteers whose terms of enlist- 

 ments soon expired. In this posture of affairs 

 the Federal army was ordered by the Govern- 

 ment to move even in the middle of winter, 

 and while nearly half its gunboats at the West 

 were without men. It swept the Confederate 

 line of defence away from near Cumberland 

 Gap to the Mississippi, which it relieved of 

 blockade above and advanced into Arkansas 

 beyond the river, and it opened the eyes of the 

 Confederate Government to the real dangers 

 of its position. A new line of defence was 

 immediately adopted, intended to command the 

 railroad system of the Southwest. It extended 

 from Memphis on the west through Grand 

 Junction, Corinth and Chattanooga. But the 

 most vigorous and determined efforts, as above 

 stated, were made by the Government to turn 

 the tide of disasters that set in upon it. Cir- 

 cumstances favored its efforts. The Federal 

 army at the West, having pushed into the field 

 in an incomplete condition, was now forced to 

 move slowly in order to secure its effective- 

 ness. Nothing of importance was done by it 

 after the capture of Fort Donelson and the 

 escape of a part of it from destruction at 

 Shiloh, until the end of May, when Corinth 

 was acquired. The eastern portion of the line 

 of defence remained unchanged sometime after 

 it had been lost at the West, and was finally 

 evacuated. The difficulties arising from the 

 weather, the incomplete state of prepara- 

 tions, and the repeated changes in the destina- 

 tion of some of the forces for the campaign so 

 retarded the army of the Potomac that it did 

 not pass Yorktown and Williamsburg and 

 begin to move directly upon the Confederate 

 capital until the middle of May. Even at that 

 period, so incomplete were the preparations of 

 the Confederate Government for the great 

 defence they were required to make, that 

 Richmond was filled with consternation. The 

 state of excitement there is thus described by an 

 officer of the Confederate army : "All who could 

 possibly get away packed up everything they 

 had and fled southward. The nearer the hos- 

 tile army approached the city the fiercer the 

 tumult and uproar became. The burning 

 waves of popular alarm could nqt be stayed. 

 The Government itself furthered the confusion. 

 Instead of resolving to triumph or to fall with 

 the army in front of Richmond, it at once or- 

 dered all the different bureaux to pack up, and 

 caused the officers of ordnance to empty the 

 magazines and convey their stores further 

 south. Even President Davis took to the 

 road and hastened, with his wife and children, 



