Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 19.djvu/392

 386 Southern Historical Society Papers.

to go to market. Of course, the people had very few greenbacks, and very little gold or silver. The city was invested by two armies, Grant's and Lee's, and its railroad communications constantly de- stroyed by the Union cavalry. Supplies of food were very scarce and enormously costly; a barrel of flour cost several hundred dollars in Confederate money, and just before the fall of the Confederacy I paid $500 for a pair of heavy boots. The suffering of this period was dreadful, and when Richmond capitulated many of its people were in an almost starving condition. Indeed, there was little food outside, and the Southern troops were but little better off.

LOYALTY OF THE SLAVES.

But in April, 1865, the Confederacy ceased to exist; it passed into history, and Richmond was occupied by the Northern army. Many of its people were without food and without money I mean money of the United States. It was at this period that the colored people of Richmond, slaves up to the time the war ended, but now no longer bondsmen, showed their loyalty and love for their former masters and mistresses. They, of course, had access to the commissary of the United States, and many, very many, of these former negro slaves, went to the United States commissary, obtained food seem- ingly for themselves, and took it in basketfuls to their former owners, who were without food or money. I do not recall any record in the world's history nobler than this indeed, equal to it.

These are memories of a dead past, and thank God! we now live under the old flag and in a happy, reunited country, which the South loves with a patriotic devotion unsurpassed by the North itself.

[From the Richmond Times, January 17, 1892.]

AMERICANS AS FIGHTERS.

Statistics Show Them to Be the Most Stubborn in the World.

General Boynton has recently published a paper about the battle of Chickamauga, which he claims as a Federal victory, because that battle was fought for the occupancy of Chattanooga, and our army did not occupy Chattanooga.