Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/524

 518 Southern Historical Society Papers.

there is perhaps no instance of a community stripped so bare of its industrial and productive forces as was the South in 1864. Prussia, during- the Seven Years' War, is perhaps an exception to this asser- tion ; I cannot remember any other. From many districts— county sub-divisions — in North Carolina, I had, during 1864, petitions signed by women alone, praying that A. B. might not be ordered away, as he was the only able-bodied man in their district to protect them, grind their grain, etc. But for our slaves, society could not then have moved on at all.

I have dwelt thus long on the reasons for my assertion that our cause was lost at home and not in the field in order to excuse the emphasis which I have given to domestic affairs in North Carolina during this period, and the efforts which we made to remove these springs of discontent. They are not unworthy of your notice, though not so exciting as stories of battles and sieges, because they go to the root of the matter. And although we were not entirely success- ful in feeding all the poor and keeping down all discontent, yet much was done, and we had the proud satisfaction of knowing that more soldiers in better condition, hailing from old North Carolina, were standing by the great Virginia chieftains, Lee and Johnston, when the bugle sounded the melancholy notes of surrender, than from any other State of the Confederacy. When it is remembered that North Carolina was devoted to the Union, and rejected secession until the very last, that much has been said about an unruly, disloyal Union element in her midst during the war, and that she has been accused of having an unusual amount of desertions from her ranks, it will be admitted, I trust, that we have a right to be proud that we are thus vindicated by the facts and figures. Surely no portion of the Southern people can show a brighter record, a nobler devotion to good faith and order.

So great was the prevalence of this unjust impression, that North Carolina could be easily detached from her duty to her confederates, that it seems there were some who presumed upon it for important purposes. Soon after the failure of the Fortress Monroe or Hamp- ton Roads Conference, I was visited by Governor Graham (whose death we so recently deplore), who was then a Senator of the Con- federate States. After giving all the particulars of that Conference which had not appeared in the papers, and the prevailing impressions of Congressional circles about Richmond, etc., he informed me that a number of leading gentlemen there, despairing of obtaining peace through Mr. Davis, and believing the end inevitable and not distant,