f
Confederate life was the household composed of several families, all
women and children, huddled together without a man or even a half-grown
lad to be their link with the mill and the market. In those regions
where there were few slaves and the exemption of overseers did not
operate, such households were numerous.

The great privations which people endured during the Confederacy have
passed into familiar tradition. They are to be traced mainly to three
causes: to the blockade, to the inadequate system of transportation, and
to the heartlessness of speculators. The blockade was the real destroyer
of the South. Besides ruining the whole policy based on King Cotton,
besides impeding to a vast extent the inflow of munitions from Europe,
it also deprived Southern life of numerous articles which were hard
to relinquish--not only such luxuries as tea and coffee, but also
such utter necessities as medicines. And though the native herbs
were diligently studied, though the Government established medical
laboratories with results that were not inconsiderable, the shortage of
medicines remained throughout the war a distressing feature of Southern
life. The Tredegar Iron Works at Richmond and a foundry at Selma,
Alabama, were the only mills in the South capable of casting the heavy
ordnance necessary for military purposes. And the demand for powder
mills and gun factories to provide for the needs of the army was
scarcely greater than the demand for cotton mills and commercial
foundries to supply the wants of the civil population. The Government
worked without ceasing to keep pace with the requirements of the
situation, and, in view of the immense difficulties which it had to
face, it was fairly successful in supplying the needs of the army.
Powder was provided by the Niter and Mining Bureau; lead for Confederate
bullets was collected from many sources--even from the window-weights of
the houses; iron was brought from the mines of Alabama; guns came from
newly built factories; and machines and tools were part of the precious
freight of the blockade-runners. Though the poorly equipped mills turned
a portion of the cotton crop into textiles, and though everything that
was possible was done to meet the needs of the people, the supply of
manufactures was sadly inadequate. The universal shortage was betrayed
by the limitation of the size of most newspapers to a single sheet, and
the desperate situation clearly and completely revealed by