Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/465

Rh the country seat of Hon. Jere. Morton, near the middle of the encampment of his corps, which was mainly along the waters of Mountain run, and the tributaries of Mine run from the west. Lee betook himself again to his pine thicket.

Here, in the county of Orange, Lee's army contended, during the long and severe winter of 1863-64, with foes more difficult to overcome than Federal soldiery. These were want of food and want of clothing, which they met and endured, with heroic fortitude, in the log cabins that they constructed from the trees of the surrounding forests and on beds of straw, mainly without blankets, but fortunately with abundant supplies of fuel near at hand. The rations were reduced to a minimum; a quarter of a pound of pork and a scant portion of meal, or flour, per day, to a man—and even this was sometimes wanting. A depreciated currency added an enormous value, in paper dollars, to all the necessaries of life, and the high tide of starvation prices prevailed everywhere, and especially in the army, where the pay, of even officers of the highest grade, was scarcely sufficient to meet the most common wants. Corn meal was $50 a bushel; beans, $60; bacon, $8 and sugar $20 a pound. The redeeming features of these days of gloom and suffering were the bright shining of the heroic virtues, not only of the men but of the women and children of the Confederacy, and the steadfast faithfulness of all the negroes, most of them slaves, who, in quiet submission to home authority, cultivated the fields, and by the arts of handicraft helped to support the people of the Confederacy and their armies. Lee not only dwelt among his men, in simple fashion, but fared as they fared, saying, when luxuries were sent him, as they often were, and which he invariably sent to the sick and wounded in hospitals, "I am content to share the rations of my men."

The luster of the heroic virtues of the army of Northern Virginia was brightened and heightened by their sublimer faith. A marked spirit of devotion characterized every portion of it. From nearly every tent and cabin could be heard the voice of prayer and the singing of hymns of devotion. Spacious, though rude, log chapels were constructed by willing hands, for religious services, and the country churches within and near the camps were utilized for like holy purposes. Not only army