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576 
 
 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
 
 CONFEDEKATE MAKE-SHIFTS. 
 
 By MRS. M. P. HANDY. 
 
 FOR four years the Federal army and the 
 Federal fleet, with their lines of bayo- 
 nets and open-mouthed Coluinbiads, shut in 
 the Southern Confederacy from the rest of 
 the world. 
 
 The Federal gun-boats fought their way 
 up the Mississippi, dividing the country in 
 two, and sea-port after sea-port was cap- 
 tured, till at last only Charleston and Wil- 
 mington were left as inlets for the outer 
 world — narrow gates which the grim war 
 dogs watched unceasingly. 
 
 Think of it, ladies ! No hats nor dresses 
 from Paris, no chocolate caramels nor French 
 bonbons, and, alas ! no new fashions, save 
 when some daring female went back and 
 forth under flag of truce — a privilege not 
 easily obtained — bringing on her return a 
 limited wardrobe wherewith to excite the 
 admiration and envy of her friends. Some- 
 times a soldier sent home a magazine found 
 in a captured or deserted camp, and the fash- 
 ion plates which it perhaps contained gave 
 the recipient some idea of what the world 
 beyond was wearing. 
 
 Now and then, under cover of a dark or 
 stormy night, the stealthy blockade-runner, 
 manned by men familiar with every nook 
 and creek along the coast, stole out, carrying 
 cotton and tobacco for Nassau, and crept in 
 again laden with the foreign commodities so 
 sorely needed by the blockaded people. But 
 these vessels were of necessity small, and 
 the stores they brought as nothing to the 
 demand. Moreover, medicines and muni- 
 tions of war formed large part of their car- 
 goes, and the dry-goods and luxuries offered 
 by their consignees to the general public 
 were held at prices beyond the means of all 
 save cotton and tobacco brokers, or rich gov- 
 ernment contractors. In the last days of 
 the Confederacy a yard of calico brought 
 forty dollars in Confederate currency, a spool 
 of sewing cotton twenty dollars, and other 
 dry-goods were proportionately dear. Flour 
 rose to twelve hundred dollars a barrel ; a 
 ham of bacon cost a hundred and fifty dol- 
 lars ; sugar was seventy-five dollars a pound, 
 and black pepper three hundred dollars. 
 
 Money was plenty, it is true, but it took 
 so much to buy so little ! The caricature 
 in a Southern illustrated journal of 1863 
 which represented a lady going to market 
 attended by a servant with her money in a 
 wheelbarrow, and returning with the bar- 
 row empty and her purchases in a small 
 hand-bag on her arm, was less exaggerated 
 than are many of the best cartoons in the 
 comic papers of to-day. 
 
 Inflation was tried to the fullest extent, 
 with the result that Confederate money be- 
 came comparatively worthless. This, how- 
 ever, did not occasion the general scarcity. 
 
 There was not much to be had even for 
 those who could pay war prices. 
 
 Thrown thus on their own resources, the 
 Southern people were forced to provide for 
 themselves. To appreciate this difficulty, it 
 must be remembered that prior to 1861 the 
 Southern States were purely an agricultural 
 community, depending on their staples of 
 tobacco, cotton, and sugar for the means of 
 purchasing every thing else. The West was 
 in large measure their granary and meat- 
 house, while New England supplied them 
 with most manufactured articles. Now the 
 blockade shut them in from these and all 
 other markets, >>and it was as though some 
 Jersey market-gardener should wake some 
 morning to find around his little farm a 
 stockade through which he Could not break, 
 and over which he could not climb without 
 risking his life. Ingenuity, economy, and 
 what New Englanders call " faculty" were 
 taxed to the utmost. Every household be- 
 came a nest of domestic manufactures, every 
 farm had its cotton patch and its sorghum 
 field. Spinning-wheels and looms, which in 
 former days had been used for clothing the 
 slaves on large plantations, but which dur- 
 ing the era of cheap dry-goods were com- 
 paratively idle, were again set going. La- 
 dies whose white hands were all unused to 
 such labor learned to card, to spin, and to 
 weave. Knitting became as fashionable in 
 Southern parlors as it is in German homes. 
 Homespun dresses were worn by the first 
 ladies in the land, and she who was clever- 
 est to contrive and deftest to execute had 
 highest praise from her associates. For- 
 eign dyes were well-nigh unattainable, and 
 the woods at home were ransacked for the 
 means of coloring the home-grown flax, 
 wool, and cotton. Black-walnut bark fur- 
 nished a rich brown, varying in intensity 
 with the strength of the dye ; swamp-ma- 
 ple, a clear purple ; pokeberries, a solferino, 
 bright, but not durable ; wild indigo gave a 
 tolerable blue, and elderberries an unsatis- 
 factory black. Indeed, no experiment with 
 bark, root, leaf, or berry ever resulted in 
 any substitute for logwood; and as black 
 was the dye most needed for Southern gar- 
 ments in those dark days, the blockade-run- 
 ners learned to make it part of their regular 
 cargo. 
 
 At one time in some sections of the South 
 there was fearful destitution of salt. Spec- 
 ulators held it at enormous prices. Even 
 the rich were forced to use it sparingly. 
 The poor seemed likely to suffer for lack of 
 it, and live stock were in many cases denied 
 it altogether. 
 
 Barrels and boxes which had been used 
 for packing salt fish or pork were soaked in 
 water afterward, which was boiled down 
 and evaporated for the sake of the salt thus 
 extracted. The earthen floors of smoke- 
 houses, into which the precious mineral had 
 
CONFEDEEATE MAKE-SHIFTS. 
 
 577 
 
 been trodden year after year, were dug up, 
 and the earth given to cattle, or treated 
 with water after the same manner as the 
 salt-seasoned hoards. 
 
 The government at Richmond came to the 
 rescue, and seizing the salt-works through- 
 out the country, issued regular rations to 
 each family at nominal prices for the rest 
 of the war. By this high-handed measure 
 the people were saved from a salt famine. 
 
 Coffee was a luxury seldom enjoyed, and 
 for which rye or wheat, toasted and ground, 
 was the usual miserable substitute. Some 
 quick-witted person conceived the idea of 
 using sweet-potato chips instead. These 
 made a more palatable drink, but were, after 
 all, only a hollow mockery. Dried raspberry 
 leaves were used for tea, and some people 
 fell back upon sassafras, the North Caro- 
 linian beverage, grimly assuring those who 
 scorned it that it was good for the blood 
 and would save doctors' bills. Not a few 
 eschewed all these transparent deceptions — 
 if that may be called deception which de- 
 ceived nobody — and when unable to afford 
 milk, drank cold water with patient heroism. 
 Children there were in the Confederacy, 
 born of well-to-do parents, who at the close 
 of the conflict did not know the taste of 
 candy. After the fall of New Orleans, sugar 
 became a luxury, never wholly unattainable, 
 it is true, but enormously dear even for Con- 
 federate money values. Previous to the war, 
 the United States government had made an 
 effort to introduce the Chinese sugar-cane, 
 or sorghum, throughout the South and West, 
 principally with reference to its use as food 
 for live stock. It was extensively cultivated 
 in some of the Western States, but Southern 
 planters did not take kindly to the new for- 
 age. Politicians denounced its introduction 
 as an attempt to injure the sugar-growing 
 interest of the far South. Amateur farmers 
 who experimented with the seed distributed 
 by the Patent-office preferred Indian corn 
 and clover or oats as food for their cattle, and 
 very few even attempted the manufacture 
 of sorghum molasses. Now, in the general 
 destitution, the despised sorghum became an 
 inestimable boon to the besieged country. 
 Far less exacting than its West Indian con- 
 gener, it flourishes wherever maize can be 
 grown, and soon it became part of every 
 planter's crop. Every large plantation had 
 its sorghum mill for crushing the cane, and 
 smaller planters brought their little crops to 
 the mills of those who were willing to grind 
 for their neighbors. These mills were for 
 
 ^ the most part primitive affairs, consisting 
 
 ^ of three upright wooden cylinders, of which 
 the centre one, turned by horse -power, 
 moved the other two by means of cog-wheels. 
 
 Q A tub set underneath the machine caught 
 the juice which flowed from the crushed 
 
 , cane, and this juice, boiled down in huge 
 * kettles, and clarified with lime, soda, or even 
 
 with lye from hickory ashes, produced the 
 molasses which became a staple article of 
 food throughout the Confederacy. Efforts 
 to reduce the sirup to sugar were, I believe, 
 abortive, and in a copy of General Orders 
 from the Adjutant and Inspector General's 
 Office, C. S. A., for 1862-63, now in possession 
 of the writer, no mention is made of sorghum 
 sugar in the price-list established for mili- 
 tary stores. 
 
 Prominent among the problems with 
 which Confederate families were forced to 
 grapple was that of lights. The gas-works 
 in the principal cities were kept in opera- 
 tion, but the gas furnished was of the poor- 
 est quality and exorbitantly dear. Many 
 private families were unable to afford its 
 use, and the few who could pay for it were 
 not always sure of getting it. On more than 
 one occasion, in crowded churches, pastor 
 and people were given a practical illustra- 
 tion of Egyptian darkness ; and on one mem- 
 orable night the gas in Richmond gave out 
 simultaneously all over the city, in all build- 
 ings, public and private, leaving those who 
 depended upon its illuminating powers in 
 total darkness. Pine torches — in Southern 
 parlance, light-wood kuots — were to be had 
 in plenty, and in winter their ruddy glow was 
 comfortable and picturesque. But work or 
 reading done by their flickering light was a 
 terrible strain on the eyes, and the heat from 
 the blazing wood was uncomfortable in sum- 
 mer. Moreover, the pitch smoke was objec- 
 tionable, and blackened the walls. 
 
 Tallow-candles were the usual resort, and 
 were often surprisingly hard and white. 
 Old-fashioned lard lamps came again into 
 use for parlors and state occasions, giving 
 a soft, clear lustre, much like that of the 
 favorite French lamp. But lard was cost- 
 ly and scarce. 
 
 For sick-rooms and nurseries, and for 
 mills where the machinery ran all night, 
 but where a bright light was not constant- 
 ly required, the bolls of the sycamore or 
 button-wood tree were dried and used as a 
 wick in a cup of melted grease. During a 
 tedious case of typhoid in the family of the 
 writer, a friend introduced a taper so safe 
 and satisfactory as to merit use in other 
 than war times. A small triangular scrap 
 of soft paper is twisted into a species of 
 miniature fool's cap, the hypothenuse of the 
 triangle forming its base. This, with the 
 knob on top oiled and lighted, and the low- 
 er part spread out like a fan, is inserted as a 
 wick in a small saucer of lard. There is no 
 unpleasant odor, and it gives a dim light by 
 which objects in the room are barely distin- 
 guishable, but from which a lamp may be 
 instantly lighted. Near the taper its light 
 is sufficient to tell the hour by a watch, to 
 read the label on a vial, and to measure 
 medicine with ease. 
 
 But the Confederate candle was, beyond 
 
578 
 
 HARPER'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
 
 all else, the light of those days. Wax and 
 resin were melted together in the propor- 
 tion of two ounces of resin to a pound of 
 wax, and through this mixture a long string 
 of candle-wick was drawn once and again, 
 until thoroughly coated. Making one was 
 always a frolic for the younger members of 
 a household, and occasionally furnished ex- 
 cuse for an afternoon party. It was a mat- 
 ter of pride to have the candle as long as 
 possible, and the work was always done out- 
 of-doors. The saucepan or "skillet" con- 
 taining the wax rested on a shovelful of hot 
 coals; the ball of wick was unrolled and 
 passed through the liquid, and from hand 
 to hand, until every inch of it had been im- 
 mersed three times, and the long, irregular 
 string became a smooth waxen rope about 
 the thickness of an ordinary lead -pencil. 
 This was then wound on a wooden stand — 
 the "Confederate candlestick" — first around, 
 then up and down. The free end was drawn 
 through a hole in a strip of tin nailed for the 
 purpose on the upper part of the candlestick, 
 and when the candle was in use was lighted, 
 the long rope unwinding like a reel of yarn 
 as it was gradually consumed. The light 
 was, perhaps, not more than equal to that 
 of a toy candle, yet it was not trying to the 
 eyes, and was sufficient for ordinary pur- 
 poses. The place next the saucepan was 
 the post of honor and of danger. The wick 
 was held down in the wax by means of a 
 small crotched stick; but, in spite of this 
 precaution, burned fingers were not unfre- 
 quently the result of the candle-making. 
 
 In view of the scarcity of breadstuff's, the 
 use of edible grains in the manufacture 
 of spirituous liquors was forbidden, under 
 heavy penalties of fine and imprisonment, 
 in addition to the confiscation of such liq- 
 uors and the implements used in their dis- 
 tillation. Fruit brandies, apple, peach, and 
 blackberry, and the rum distilled from the 
 juice of the sorghum cane, became almost 
 the sole intoxicating beverages of the Con- 
 federacy. These brought high prices, and 
 much of the fruit crop was converted into 
 brandy. From this, also, the alcohol for 
 medicinal purposes was distilled. The wine 
 of the scuppernong and of the common wild 
 grape was also extensively manufactured. 
 
 Drugs and medicines were extremely 
 scarce, and many lives were lost for lack of 
 them. Prohibited as contraband of war, they 
 were never suffered to form part of the one 
 hundred pounds of baggage allowed each of 
 the few persons granted permits to go South 
 under flag of truce. Much smuggling was 
 carried on along the border, and quinine 
 and opium were standard articles in this 
 dangerous traffic. The Medical Depart- 
 ment at Eichmond appealed to the women 
 of the South to engage in the culture of 
 opium, and distributed quantities of poppy 
 seed for that purpose. After the flower 
 
 dropped its petals, the green capsules were 
 to be pricked with, a needle, and the gum 
 which exuded collected and sent to the 
 Medical Director. Large quantities of pop- 
 pies were raised, but very little opium was 
 gathered. Dried blackberries were a lead- 
 ing article among hospital stores contrib- 
 uted by Soldiers' Aid Societies in country 
 neighborhoods. Flaxseed and the inner 
 bark of the sweet-gum (Liquidarribar styracA- 
 flua) and of the slippery-elm ( Ulmus fulva) 
 were also prominent among such supplies. 
 
 The natural resources of the Southern 
 States are immense, and stood the people in 
 good stead. Factories of different kinds 
 were established in districts remote from 
 the seat of war, but the machinery was nec- 
 essarily imperfect, and the results such as 
 would now be accounted far from satisfac- 
 tory. It was almost impossible to procure 
 rare chemicals, and where their use was im- 
 portant, the work was of course incomplete. 
 
 Confederate paper, in even the finer grades, 
 resembled whity- brown wrapping paper. 
 Confederate ink was pale and sick-looking. 
 Confederate matches came in tiny blocks, 
 ftrom which they were broken as needed : 
 Tboxes were too costly +,o be afforded them. 
 
 A volume might be written on the ingen- 
 ious contrivances of the ladies to replenish 
 their wardrobes. Homespun dresses were 
 among the least of these. They made every 
 thing they wore, from hats to shoes, and 
 some of the work was exquisitely done. 
 Such articles as were beyond their skill — 
 and they were few — were substituted some 
 way or another. Large thorns, with the 
 heads tipped with sealing-wax, did duty as 
 hair-pins. Common brass pins, imported 
 from Nassau, sold near the close of the war 
 for forty dollars a paper, and needles and 
 thread were used instead wherever such use 
 was practicable. Economy was an obliga- 
 tory virtue in those days, and nothing was 
 wasted which could possibly be turned to 
 account. Mr. Hale's ingenious story of the 
 old hoop-skirts which ruined the Confed- 
 eracy was more far-fetched than even he 
 supposed, for nothing so valuable was ever 
 thrown away — though I must confess that 
 they were often stored in a closet while 
 awaiting the numerous uses to which they 
 were put. 
 
 Luxuries were not many, and self-denial 
 of the sternest sort was frequently prac- 
 ticed. Starvation parties, at which no re- 
 freshments were furnished, were ordinary 
 entertainments in Eichmond during 1864. 
 Housekeepers who wished to give suppers 
 to their friends, but who could not afford to 
 call in the costly aid of a confectioner, re- 
 sorted to various expedients. Calves' -foot 
 jelly was made without wine or lemons, 
 peach brandy and vinegar being the sub- 
 stitutes, and was not an unpalatable dish. 
 Milk was always procurable, and ice-cream, 
 
CONFEDERATE MAKE-SHIFTS. 
 
 579 
 
 in consequence, not unknown. Such des- 
 serts as could be made with, sorghum mo- 
 lasses were those most frequent. Indeed, 
 there was a surfeit of sorghum to those who 
 used it in lieu of something better, and the 
 word became a slang term for flattery — the 
 equivalent of the Yankee "soft sawder." 
 Preserves put up with sorghum molasses 
 had always a twang which betrayed their 
 origin — a twang barely mitigated by the 
 use of soda. Yet few people could afford 
 the use of sugar for the purpose, and those 
 who could not, gladly availed themselves of 
 the cheaper make-shift. 
 
 People whose vanity lay in their feet, and 
 who were in consequence particular about 
 their shoes, had a hard time of it in those 
 days. Ladies not unfrequently made the 
 upper part of their own cloth gaiters, using 
 for pattern an old shoe ripped in pieces, and 
 had them soled by a shoe-maker, ^ Country 
 tanneries were kept busy, and country shoe- 
 makers found themselves in request of those 
 who had hitherto scorned their handiwork. 
 "fFine leather was scarce, and beef brought 
 such high prices that calves were usually 
 kept as a growing investment. Now and 
 then one of tender age was sacrificed on the 
 shrine of vanity, and then tanner and shoe- 
 maker had little peace until their work was 
 done to the satisfaction of the fortunate 
 owner. Goats had short lease of their lives, 
 and dogs shook in their skins after some- 
 body discovered that from those skins leath- 
 er of the finest and softest quality might be 
 manufactured. This known, they were ruth- 
 lessly slaughtered. Even the meanest cur 
 was of value for once, and " nothing in his 
 life became him like the leaving of it." 
 Sheep-skins tanned with the wool on were 
 highly prized for saddle blankets; shorn, 
 they made excellent riding gloves ; and to 
 these purposes they were usually applied. 
 Remembering the sabots of the French peas- 
 antry, some one introduced shoes with wood- 
 en soles, to which the upper leather was se- 
 cured by tacks. These were cheap and 
 durable, and became popular for stout walk- 
 ing shoes. Shaped to the foot like a Roman 
 sandal, and with low broad heels, they were 
 not uncomfortable ; and the fact that they 
 were almost water -proof compensated in 
 some degree for the difficulty of procuring 
 rubber overshoes. In-doors their clatter on 
 bare floors was objectionable, and many per- 
 sons kept them in the hall, with hat and 
 wrappings, for use in wet weather alone^ 
 
 Straw plaiting became a usual accom- 
 plishment with Southern girls, and the bun- 
 dle of wet straws and the constantly length- 
 ening braid were of frequent appearance in 
 the family circles gathered around the Con- 
 federate candle. The plait most common 
 was that known as the " rough and ready" 
 — a pointed braid woven with four straws. 
 Ladies wishing for something more stylish 
 
 preferred the seven plait of split straw, iden- 
 tical with the popular English straw. An 
 inventive genius produced and, I think, pat- 
 ented, a little machine for splitting the 
 straw. This was a small block of wood 
 with a fragment of steel from an old hoop- 
 skirt inserted at one end and filed into tiny 
 teeth for dividing the straw. A longer scrap 
 of the same steel served as a lever for keep- 
 ing the straw in place as it was drawn across 
 the teeth of the splitter. Wheat straw was 
 the kind most plentiful, and therefore most 
 used. Rye straw, longer and whiter, was 
 often cultivated expressly for the purpose 
 of plaiting. Oat straw, soft and light, made 
 a pleasant hat to wear, but the straws were 
 short and coarse, and generally so dark that 
 the work had always to be dyed. 
 
 The inner shuck of the Indian corn was 
 woven into hats for children. These were 
 as white and as soft as the chip hats of to-^ 
 day. Trimmings for them were made from 
 the same materials, intermixed with raveled 
 silk. Ropes and tassels, flowers and leaves, 
 and an exceedingly fine braid for trimming, 
 were all made of straw. .Feather bands for 
 trimming sacques and wraps, with aigrettes 
 and feather flowers for hats and bonnets, 
 were exquisitely manufactured by the deft 
 fingers of Confederate women. The feather 
 fans, made by a family of sisters whose name 
 is one of the oldest in Virginia, became fa- 
 mous throughout that State and North Car- 
 olina. Many of them are no doubt still pre- 
 served as relics of war times by those who 
 were fortunate enough to obtain them. 
 
 Never, perhaps, was there more need for 
 ingenuity; rarely has so much been exer- 
 cised. Many of these make-shifts were con- 
 trivances of which the users were honestly 
 proud, or over which they could at least 
 cheerfully laugh ; and, after all, it was com- 
 paratively easy to dispense with luxuries 
 when all one's neighbors did the same. 
 But there came a day when men told one 
 another the story of the straw-adulterated 
 bread of the Russian serfs, and wondered 
 whether such food could be eaten by those 
 used to better things, looking forward to 
 the time when they might be forced to try 
 the experiment themselves ; when every 
 ounce of meat, every spoonful of meal, was 
 precious ; when wheaten bread was thought 
 a luxury ; when butter was rarely seen ex- 
 cept on the tables of the rich ; when eggs 
 were treasured as a delicacy for the sick ; 
 and when people endured privations so con- 
 stantly that they ceased to consider them 
 such. 
 
 When Lee's army surrendered, it had 
 dwindled to a handful of ragged, starving 
 veterans. The people at home had, in re- 
 sponse to an appeal from their idolized gen- 
 eral, vainly put themselves on half rations 
 to send him supplies, and one of the first 
 duties of the Federal troops on taking pos- 
 
580 HAEPEE'S NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
 
 session of Eichmond was to feed the coun- j " 
 try they had conquered. The war had writ- I 
 ten its record in blood on well-nigh every 
 Southern hearth-stone, and many of those , 
 who had sacrificed most in the fight for se- I 
 cession drew a breath of relief that the 
 struggle was ended, even though they had ! 
 failed ; for watching and waiting were done ' 
 with, cannon and rifle shot would dig no 
 more graves. 
 
 
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 
 
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 FOR USE ONLY IN 
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