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36

aspect, in spite of the fact that warerooms and even stores on Main Street were opened, fitted with bunks and filled with the maimed and suffering brought in from Seven Pines and other battlefields on the Peninsula.* Early in 1862 music and dancing in private houses were common† and a ❝ hop was given every week in the ballroom of the Spotswood Hotel. In August of 1863 it was stated that never before had ladies been so extravagant in their expenditure for showy foreign fabrics. Later, when prices began to soar, one journalist lamented that five balls were advertised while flour was $125 a barrel.‡ The theatres of the larger cities were well attended, though toward the close of 1863 the assertion was made that such amusements were out of place when the land was filled with sorrow and mourning for its heroic dead.|| A "Starvation Club " was formed in Richmond, the members meeting at one another's houses for a dance or amateur theatricals; the music was

* De Leon, Four Years in Rebel Capitals, p. 199 et seq.

Mary B. Chesnut, Diary from Dixie, passim ; De Leon, Four Years in Rebel Capitals, p. 148 et seq.

On February 1, 1864, Mrs. Chesnut enters in her diary (p. 284) that she attended Mrs. Davis' "Luncheon to Ladies Only" where she ate "Gumbo, duck and olives, chickens in jelly, oysters, lettuce salad, chocolate cream, jelly cake, claret, champagne, etc." and on the next line states that she paid $85 "for a pair of forlorn shoes."

See, for instance, the remark of General Lawton at a dinner given at Richmond to John Morgan, quoted in Chesnut, Diary from Dixie, p. 276. See also p. 286.

paid for by assessments on the members but refreshments were forbidden.* The "Starvations" were not the only amusements, even in the last days of the war. last days of the war. Amateur theatricals and tableaux became the rage; "and that especial pet horror of supersensitive godliness-the godless german cotillion even forced itself into the gayeties of the winter."t In Mobile, Charleston, and Augusta there were balls, fairs, and concerts; races were run at Richmond and other places; in Mobile there were cock-fights; and the increase of gambling houses in Richmond gave the authorities much concern.t

Vice and crime increased; drunkenness and gambling were rampant; and ruffians, thieves, and prostitutes abounded. The Richmond Examiner declared:

"The city is full of the vilest licentiousness. Among all the loathsome vices imported into it by the harpies who prey upon the army, that of gambling has become so prominent and brazen as to defy public decency as well as law, intruding its allurements on the most frequented parts of our most public streets. The painted

dens of San Francisco and 'hells' of the old federal city were not a whit more diabolical than

*

Mary B. Chesnut, in her Diary from Dixie, p. 260, speaks of “Hetty Cary's Starvation party, where they will give thirty dollars for the music and not a cent for a morsel to eat."

De Leon, Four Years in Rebel Capitals, p. 352.

Rhodes, United States, vol. v., pp. 426–427; Schwab, Confederate States, p. 281; Schouler, United States, vol. vi., pp. 574–575.

|| Pollard, Life of Davis,, pp. 129, 153; Jones, Diary, vol. ii., p. 41; Pollard, Third Year of the War, p. 182.

*

thesaloons' on Main Street, Richmond. There is said to be now in this city a sufficient number of gamblers to form a regiment."

Laws were passed to supress the gambling houses, but only temporarily held them in check, the police government having gone to pieces. Thieves, garroters, and murderers so infested Richmond that vigilance committees were formed and lynch law threatened. Such conditions prevailed in other cities of the South. The saloons of Mobile had been closed by General Bragg's order, but after their reopening in August of 1863, gambling and drunkenness began to run riot. In April of 1864 Charleston citizens claimed that burglaries, arsons, assaults, and murders were committed daily in their midst. Excessive drinking increased in Montgomery, and in October of 1864 Augusta was infested by a gang of

thieves and robbers.t There were many defalcations of public money|| and many speak of corruption and malfeasance in office. In his Diary Jones speaks of " thieving quartermasters and commissaries" and he evidently spoke truthfully, for on May 1, 1863, the Confederate Congress passed an act" to prevent fraud in the quartermaster's and commissary departments." As in the North much fraud came to light in connection with the transactions of the bounty

*See also De Leon, Four Years in Rebel Capitals, pp. 238-240.

Schwab, Confederate States, p. 281. Rhodes, United States, vol. v., pp. 428-429. | Pollard, Life of Davis, p. 153.

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jumpers and the professional substitute agents.*

Though there were no great organizations in the South like the Sanitary Commission and the Christion Commission, there were a number of small associations which worked to alleviate the miseries of war. The women of the South carried on much charitable work and were as devoted to their cause as the women of the North. The distress of the Southern women was far greater than that of the Northern women. In the latter section many families had no near relatives at the front; but in the South it was a rare exception when neither husband, father, son, nor brother was in the army. Hence there was scarcely a home in the South that had not been visited by the fearful ravages of war and the consequent sorrow and mourning. The work of the women of the South was recognized by the Confederate Congress by the passage of a resolution of thanks" to the patriotic women of the Confederacy for the energy, zeal, and untiring devotion which they have manifested in furnishing voluntary contributions to our soldiers in the field, and in the various military hospitals throughout the

country."

* See, for instance, Official Records, ser. iv., vol. ii., pp. 45, 582, 613, 648, 654, 656, 672, 674, 694, 822, 947, 996, 997, 1059.

Jones, A Rebel War-Clerk's Diary, vol. ii., p. 16. See also J. L. Underwood, Women of the Confederacy (1908); B. W. Arnold, Virginia Women and the Civil War, in Publications of the Southern History Association, vol. ii., p. 256 (July, 1898).

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A profound religious sentiment swayed the majority of the people and was particularly noticeable in the armies of Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Prayer-meetings were held and "a sort of religious ecstasy took possession of the [Lee's] army."'* Jackson probably was the most striking figure of the war on the Southern side. No man was more devout, and his religion became a part of his being, influencing every act. He prayed without ceasing and never went into battle without asking the Divine guidance. His observance of the Sabbath was extremely rigorous; he would never precipitate a battle on that day and would avoid an attack by the enemy if it were possible. Whenever possible he encamped his army on the Sabbath and devoted the day to rest, recreation, and religious exercises.t Swinton describes him as follows:

"Jackson was essentially an executive officer, and in this sphere he was incomparable. Devoid of high mental parts, and destitute of that power of planning and combination, and of that calm, broad, military intellect which distinguished Gen. Lee, whom he regarded with childlike reverence, and whose designs he loved to carry out, he had

*

George Cary Eggleston, Recollections of a Rebel, p. 240. See also J. W. Jones, Christ in the Camp, or, Religion in Lee's Army (1887).

See the biographies of Jackson by R. L. Dabney, J. E. Cooke, and others previously mentioned; Eggleston, Recollections of a Rebel; Pollard, The Lost Cause, p. 379 et seq. In her Diary from Dixie, p. 261, however, Mary B. Chesnut quotes one of Jackson's generals as saying: "I think there is a popular delusion about the amount of praying he did. He certainly preferred a fight on Sunday to a sermon. Failing to manage a fight, he loved best a long Presbyterian sermon, Calvinistic to the core."

Army of the Potomac, p. 289.

yet those elements of character that, above all else, inspire troops. A fanatic in religion, fully believing that he was destined by Heaven to beat his enemy whenever he encountered him, he infused something of his own frevent faith into his men, and at the time of his death had trained a corps whose attacks in column were unique and irresistible."

The efforts of the commanders were ably supported by the Bible Society of the Confederate States, the South Carolina Tract Society, and other similar organizations, which printed and distributed among the soldiers many Bibles, Testaments, sermons, tracts, hymn-books for camp worship, and religious "songsters" for the army. The different church organizations held their conventions as usual and established missions among the soldiers.

Interest in educational matters was not suspended because of the war. The elementary schools were not greatly affected by the civil strife, but the higher institutions of learning were either closed altogether or maintained only with difficulty. "The first effect of the war was to close the doors of the Southern universities and colleges. Professors and students enlisted in the army. Those unfitted for

'Desperate efforts were made to maintain schools. The minutes of the Charleston School Board tell a pathetic tale. As the shells from the hostile batteries penetrated farther and farther into the city, one school after another was rendered unsafe for occupancy. The building was abandoned but the children were housed temporarily in sections more remote from the siege guns, and the public school system, founded by C. G. Memminger, then a member of the cabinet of President Davis, continued its beneficent work." -The South in the Building of the Nation, vol. x., p. 288.