rs who forestalled the
hunger of weeks to come, laid siege to larder, smoke-house,
spring-house. Pay, often tendered, was hardly ever accepted. The
cavalryman was perhaps a trifle less welcome than the infantryman,
because of the capacious horse and the depleted corn-bin, but few were
turned away. Yet there was the liberal earth, and the farmer did not
starve, as did the wretched civilian whose dependence was a salary,
which did not advance with the rising tide of the currency. The woes of
the war clerks in Richmond and of others are on record, and important
contributions have been made to the economical history of the
Confederate States. I will not draw on these stores. I will only tell of
what I have lived, as demanded by the title of this paper. The income of
the professors of the University of Virginia was nominally the same
during the war that it was before, but the purchasing power of the
currency steadily diminished. If it had not been for a grant of
woodland, we should have frozen as well as starved during the last year
of the war, when the quest of food had become a serious matter. In our
direst straits we had not learned to dispense with household service,
and the household servants were never stinted of their rations, though
the masters had to content themselves with the most meagre fare. The
farmers, generous enough to the soldiers, were not overconsiderate of
the non-combatants. Often the only way of procuring our coarse food was
by making contracts to be paid after the war in legal currency, and
sometimes payment in gold was exacted. The contracts were not always
kept, and the unfortunate civilian had to make new contracts at an
enhanced price. Before my first campaign in 1861, I had bought a little
gold and silver, for use in case of capture, and if it had not been for
that precious hoard I might not be writing this sketch. But despite the
experience of the airy gentlemen who alighted in Richmond during the
war, even gold and silver would not always work wonders. Bacon and
corned beef in scant measure were the chief of our diet, and not always
easy to procure. I have ridden miles and miles, with silver in my palm,
seeking daintier food for the women of my household, but in vain. There
was nothing to do except to tighten one's belt, and to write editorials
showing up the selfishness of the farming class and prophesying the
improvement of the currency.

No wonder, then, that with such an experience a bookis