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Civil War

The Patriots of '61 For the vast majority of women, contributions to the war effort required traditional, domestic skills: sewing flags or uniforms, knitting socks and providing foodstuffs, extra blankets and a myriad of items from home. Here, three ladies construct the banner under which the local company will march to war.

Civilians

As men bled and died at Chancellorsville and Chickamauga, civilians at home supported the war effort in varying degrees. Few were apathetic. Bulletins from the front, displayed at newspaper offices, caught the eye and touched off heated street debates. The mighty struggle between union and secession left its mark on farm, factory, home, and financial district.

Money was a prime requisite for victory. Monster rallies brought the public together for hours of oratory and exhortation in behalf of the war effort. After successful meetings, when returning heroes and long-winded politicians had harangued the crowd, it was hoped the populace would rush to sign up for war bonds.

Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, in charge of war financing for the North, created a highly successful program despite temporary setbacks. The cost of the war to the federal government was about $3 billion. At the outset, Chase was authorized to borrow $250 million, increase tariffs, levy a direct tax on the states, and establish an income tax of 3 per cent on those who earned $800 or more per year. But war costs skyrocketed and the government, queasy about increasing taxation, took the easy way out and issued a flood of paper money, which led to inflation.

By 1863, when the war was costing more than $2 million per day, Chase put the North on a sound financial basis by establishing a national banking system. In essence, it allowed groups of men to establish banking businesses by purchasing government bonds and depositing them in Washington. They were then allowed to issue "bank notes" backed by the bonds. The notes became solid national currency, with the government promising to redeem them should the banks fail. Bankers loaned their notes, at profitable interest rates, and credit flowed freely. With their profits, the bankers bought U.S. bonds, thus supporting the war effort.

Christopher G. Memminger, in charge of Southern finance, was not as successful as Chase. There was little actual money in the South as war began (and that was soon exhausted), for potential profits were tied up in the huge cotton crop. Lack of ready cash made loans and taxation almost useless as sources of revenue. The alternative was the issuance of paper money, and the government printed it in huge quantities, using it to pay for materials of war. Ruinous inflation resulted. Prices soared, coffee reaching $40 per pound, flour $1,000 per barrel. After the Yankee victories of 1863, the Confederate dollar was worth only 10 cents in gold. By the end of 1864, Southern credit was dead.

The tools of war were made by civilian hands. Arsenals and machine shops mushroomed North and South, opening up new jobs to men and women. Purchasing agents sent abroad contracted for arms to fill the gaps, until home manufacturing could turn out sufficient guns and ammunition.

Colonel James W. Ripley became ordnance chief in the North and carried the military through its critical period of arms shortage. He expanded manufacturing facilities then in existence and balanced the output of government arsenals, private concerns, and European producers.

Standardization of arms became a desirable goal early in the war. State-armed troops, and those who drew from U.S. establishments, carried a wide variety of rifles. Gifts, such as the 20,000 Enfield rifles from England, presented by the state of New York, further complicated the picture.

Efforts were made to adopt a standard .58 caliber rifle, such as the serviceable weapon turned out by the Springfield Armory. Only in this way could the ammunition problem be solved. Standardization was gradually achieved in the Union army, but all arms available were used in the beginning. As a stopgap, rifles of smaller caliber were reamed out so their bores measured .58 and they could accommodate what was to become standard ammunition.

The vast industrial resources of the North showed to best advantage in the manufacture of guns and ammunition. In early 1862, there were only 10,000 .58 caliber rifles in the government arsenals. Eighteen months later, the nation was independent of foreign sources and the Springfield Armory alone could turn out 250,000 rifles per year. By the middle of 1864, the North had in hand 2,000,000 small arms.

Manufacture of ammunition for rifle, pistol, and carbine called for deft hands, and female workers found employment at arsenals and armories. Girls, such as those at the Watertown Arsenal in Massachusetts, helped make almost 170,000,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition in 1864.

Artillery manufacturers turning out field and siege guns ran into trouble with poor iron and purchased much metal abroad. Despite difficulties, casting proceeded and guns flowed into the field. At the conclusion of the Battle of Bull Run, Union troops were left with 30 cannon; in less than eight months, the number had grown to 520.

Immense natural resources, enormous manufacturing capacity, and control of the seas (for purchase of materials abroad) gave the North superiority in ordnance supply. The South lacked such essentials but buckled down to make the best of what it had. Colonel Josiah Gorgas became Chief of the Confederate Ordnance Department and labored mightily at a seemingly hopeless task.

Capture of state arsenals gave the Confederates a variety of antiquated arms and a handful of modern rifles. The coastal forts produced heavy guns but there were few field pieces. Gunpowder, lead, iron, and copper for percussion caps were in short supply.

Civilian hands labored night and day to create munitions. The big Tredegar Works at Richmond, with some 2,500 men employed, turned out more than 1,000 cannon. From the Richmond Arsenal came over 360,000 small arms and 72,500,000 rounds of smallarms ammunition.

A powder mill was created at Augusta, fed by Louisiana sulphur, saltpeter leached from ground beneath smokehouses, and charcoal from the abundant forests. Turpentine and brandy stills contributed copper; pipes and sash weights were melted into lead for bullets.

Despite earnest civilian efforts, the Confederacy was forced to make large purchases abroad to provide weapons for its fighting men. Northern civilians indirectly helped bring an end to this policy as the war progressed. Working in government and private shipyards, they put together the vessels that blockaded the stricken South and cut off the flow of war materials from overseas.

Woman's part in the Civil War stretched from hearth to hospital. Sewing bees kept soldiers supplied with havelocks, which they didn't use, and socks, which they did. Many women served the United States Sanitary Commission, an all-purpose welfare agency created in the North. In June, 1861, the body came into being with the Reverend Henry W. Bellows as president.

As its name implied, the Commission originally investigated sanitation in army camps. Doctors, enlisted at the start, were soon joined by men and women who sent food to the troops, cared for their dependents, assisted in hospitals, and raised funds. Among the fund-raising projects were immense "sanitary fairs," held in cities such as Brooklyn. Farmers and merchants donated produce and goods to be auctioned at these gatherings, the proceeds going to soldier relief.

Urban ladies who belonged to the Commission signed up for cash gifts, visited soldiers in general hospitals, and arranged for theatrical benefit performances. Some of their hardier sisters went into the field with the army, running hospital ships and trains and nursing men near the line of battle.

The Sanitary Commission was eulogized as "the product of divine seed that took root in the heart of woman, and by her was chiefly nourished." Begun in sentiment, the organization raised $5,000,000 in hard cash and distributed goods to the value of $15,000,000 among the grateful troops.

Southern women had a harder row to hoe than their Northern counterparts. Blockade-created shortages called for immense ingenuity on their parts to keep life on its normal course. They loomed fabrics to clothe themselves and their slaves, picked wild berries to make dyes, roasted sweet potatoes for synthetic coffee, molded candles from beeswax, and, through all their trials, managed to volunteer for hospital duty. Although money had little value in the later days of the war, such Southern associations as the Women's Relief Society collected funds and spent them as well as they could for the benefit of ailing soldiers.

The war caused little dislocation in the North. Life flowed on as usual, with occasional interruptions for worthy military charities. Business boomed. There were fortunes to be made overnight. Beef and blankets, ships and shoes, coal and cartridges could be traded for government dollars. Army and Navy purchasing agents spent lavishly.

Careless inspection systems let the federal government in for large quantities of shoddy goods. Venal contractors fobbed off worthless rifles, inferior wool, and simulated leather at handsome prices. There were honest patriots in the market place who gave good value for the money received, but the cynical and grasping darted in and out to seize quick profits. The enormous demand for goods and services combined with the free flow of money created a new crop of millionaires, lampooned in contemporary publications. Capitalists created monopolies and kept prices high.

These signs of dynamic prosperity never existed in the South. Some cotton speculators, contractors, and syndicates owning blockade runners made killings but their opportunities diminished as war went on. Much of the money the Southern government could scrape together was sent abroad to pay for munitions.

As the Confederate economy tottered, the government faced a serious disruption of its labor force. Negroes were most affected. Liberated slaves followed Northern troops in such large numbers that they became a serious problem. They eventually fought for the North although the number of colored soldiers was never large. Many colored people joined the Yankees as teamsters, cooks, and launderers. They were willing workers, somewhat dazzled by their freedom. Some slaves remained with their masters. The solid defenses of Vicksburg, Richmond, Petersburg, Savannah, and Charleston were built by Negro efforts.

White families, too, were dislocated as war rolled over the South. In border states, such as Missouri, refugees roamed the roads after their homes were destroyed. In Virginia and Georgia, it was often the fate of Southern wives and mothers to sit amongst their possessions to watch the burning of their homes.

John S. Blay. Civilians. The Civil War; A Pictorial Profile. Bonanza Books, New York, 1958.

Too Afraid to Cry Maryland Civilians in the Antietam Campaign. Ernst. This book weaves together firsthand accounts and fast paced narrative into a tapestry that accurately portrays Unionist and secessionist citizens throughout the 1862 Maryland campaign. Their stories told here for the first time are no less important than those of the soldiers who marched through their cornfields, and are essential to a full understanding of the Civil War.

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