Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 4.djvu/20

6 enough from the same State to last for some months. The blockade steamer Advance, bought by the State, operated in the interest of the State, brought into the port of Wilmington not counting thousands of dollars worth of industrial and agricultural supplies &quot;leather and shoes for 250,000 pairs, 50,000 blankets, cloth for 250,000 uniforms, 2,000 Enfield rifles, with 100 rounds of fixed ammunition for each rifle, 500 sacks of coffee for the hospitals, $50,000 worth of medicines,&quot; etc. These articles were bought either from the sale of cotton or on the credit of the State, and were used not only by the State troops already mustered into the Confederate service, and hence having no further legal claim on the care of their own State, but were also distributed to troops from other States. In the winter succeeding Chickamauga, Governor Vance sent to Longstreet’s corps 14,000 suits of uniform complete. Maj. A. Gordon of the adjutant-general’s office says: &quot;The State of North Carolina was the only one that furnished clothing for its troops during the entire war, and these troops were better clothed than those of any other State. &quot; &quot;The State arsenal at Fayetteville, &quot; reports Maj. M. P. Taylor, &quot;turned out about 500 splendid rifles each month&quot; this being after the second year of the war. Wayside hospitals were established in all the chief towns for the sick and wounded. These things and hundreds of others were done, not simply in the first enthusiasm of the contest, but during the whole desperate struggle.

How unsparingly the State gave of her sons may be shown by a single instance cited by Governor Vance: Old Thomas Carlton, of Burke county, was a good sample of the grand but unglorified class of men among us who preserve the savor of good citizenship and enno- —