CONFEDERATE STATES. 



209 



that serious apprehensions existed that the 

 armies might be obliged to fall back from some 

 of their positions in consequence of the diffi- 

 culty of getting to them food for men and 

 horses. The country, in the vicinity of the 

 armies, had been stripped of its provisions and 

 forage, and they depended for their existence 

 and the maintenance of their positions upon the 

 railroads. The better the roads were, the more 

 certain were the supplies of the troops and 

 their ability to resist all the efforts of the Fed- 

 eral army to occupy the country. 



In two instances the Government made 

 roads, to complete the internal system, where 

 gaps existed. From Selma, in Alabama, to 

 Meriden, in Mississippi, a link was built 

 which completed this great highway, from 

 west to east, and superseded the necessity of a 

 long detour by Mobile, and rendered useless 

 any attempt by the forces at Pensacola to cut 

 off communication by destroying the railroad 

 which connects Montgomery with Mobile. 

 The other instance was the line, of fifty miles 

 in length, between Danville, in Virginia, and 

 Greensborough, in North Carolina. By this 

 work the Government was relieved from a de- 

 pendence upon the line of railroad which runs 

 from Richmond through Petersburg and Wei- 

 don, and which has for years been the great 

 highway between the North and the South. 



But while the armies were exposed to want, 

 from the probable inability of the roads to 

 transport sufficient provisions, the situation of 

 the inhabitants in some parts of the Confeder- 

 acy was equally critical, from the same cause. 

 The northern part of Virginia, the fruitful val- 

 ley of the Shenandoah, and the eastern section 

 of North Carolina produced in ordinary times 

 most of the grain which supplied bread to the 

 South, and which was exported to South Amer- 

 ica. Each of these districts was now in pos- 

 session of the Federal forces. In Middle Ten- 

 nessee agriculture was suspended, and the 

 aged men, women, and children who adhered 

 to the Confederacy, were forced to retire still 

 farther south and increase the number of 

 mouths to be fed there. Another source of 

 supply, the North Carolina Fisheries, which an- 

 nually yielded millions of herring besides shad 

 to be salted, was also cut off. The wheat crop 

 of 1862 was an unusually poor one ; and al- 

 though a sufficiency of grain for the year's sup- 

 ply of food was grown, the limited means of 

 transportation possessed by the Confederacy 

 were taxed to the utmost to bring this grain 

 from the remote corners of States to the spots 

 where it was demanded for consumption to 

 bring the food and the mouths together. Such 

 was the aspect, relative to provisions, in the 

 beginning of the year. It was evident that a 

 great change must be made in the production 

 to enable the country to surmount these evils. 

 The Government, foreseeing the danger, made 

 vigorous appeals to the people. A series of 

 resolutions were passed by Congress on the 

 subject, one of which requested Mr. Davis 

 VOL. in. 14 A 



to issue an address to the people. In compli- 

 ance with this request he soon after issued an 

 address, dated Richmond, April 10th. After 

 presenting a most flattering view of the gen- 

 eral military result in staying the Federal 

 progress, he turns to the subject of provisions, 

 and thus proceeds : 



With such a contest before us there is but one dan- 

 ger which the Government of your choice regards with 

 apprehension ; and to avert this danger it appeals to 



of last year, reduced the harvests on which we depend 

 far below an average yield, and the deficiency was, 

 unfortunately, still more marked in the northern part 

 of our Confederacy, where supplies were especially 

 needed for the army. If, through a confidence in an 

 early peace, which may prove delusive, our fields 

 should now be devoted to tne production of cotton and 

 tobacco, instead of grain and live stock and other ar- 

 ticles necessary for tne subsistence of the people and 

 army, the consequences may prove serious, if not disas- 

 trous, especially should this present season prove as 

 unfavorable as the last. Your country, therefore, ap- 

 peals to you to lay aside all thought of gain, and to 

 devote yourselves to securing your liberties, without 

 which these gains would be valueless. 



It is true that the wheat harvest in the more south- 

 ern States which will be gathered next month prom- 

 ises an abundant yield ; but even if this promise be 

 fulfilled, the difficulties of transportation, enhanced as 

 it has been by an unusually rainy winter, will cause 

 embarrassments iu military operations and sufferings 

 among the people, should the crops in the middle and 

 northern portions of the Confederacy prove deficient. 

 But no uneasiness may be felt in regard to a mere 

 supply of bread for men. It is for the large amount of 

 corn and forage required in the raising of live stock, 

 and the supplies of the animals used for military opera- 

 tions, too bulky for distant transportation ; and in them 

 the deficiency of the last harvest was mostly Jelt. Let 

 your fields be devoted exclusively to the production of 

 corn, oats, beans, peas, potatoes, and other food for 

 man and beast ; let corn be sowed broadcast for fodder 

 in immediate proximity to railroads, rivers, and ca- 

 nals, and let all your efforts be directed to the prompt 

 supply of these articles in the districts where our ar- 

 mies are operating. You will thus add greatly to 

 their efficiency, and furnish the means without which 

 it is impracticable to make those prompt and active 

 movements which have hitherto stricken terror into our 

 enemies arid secured our most brilliant triumphs. 



Having thus placed before you, my countrymen, the 

 reasons for the call made on you for aid in supplying 

 the wants of the coming year, I add a few words of 

 appeal in behalf of the Tbrave soldiers now confronting 

 your enemies, and to whom your Government is un- 

 able to furnish all the comforts they so richly merit. 

 The supply of meal for the army is deficient. This de- 

 ficiency is only temporary, for measures have been 

 adopted which will, it is believed, soon enable us to 

 restore the full rations ; but the ration is now reduced 

 at times to one half the usual quantity in some of our 

 armies. It is known that the supply of meat through- 

 out the country is sufficient for the support of all ; but 

 the distances are so great, the condition of the roads 

 has been so bad during the five months of winter 

 weather through which we have just passed, and the 

 attempt of grovelling speculators to forestall the mar- 

 ket and make money out of the life blood of our defend- 

 ers, have so much influenced the withdrawal from 

 sale of the surplus in the hands of the producers, that 

 the Government has been unable to gather full sup- 

 plies. 



The Secretary of War has prepared a plan, which is 

 appended to this address, by the aid of which, or some 

 similar means to be adopted by yourselves, you can as- 

 sist the officers of the Government iu the purchase of 



