and means of carrying on work, prevailed. There was no money in the treasury and no means of securing it. I found the road [in Tennessee and Georgia] in bad condition; the track force had been over two weeks at work repairing; still it was with difficulty I passed over it with the train. The iron had been torn up at the principal road-crossings; stock-gaps were out of order, and fences built across the track; ditches filled up; . . in many of the cuts the iron was covered with loose rock and dirt; the embankments had settled and washed; culverts filled up; track out of line. . new cross-ties wanted to replace those too rotten to hold a spike. Trestles had to be overhauled. . . Water-stations out of order, having been dry for two years. Turning-table at Trenton full of mud; had to be rewalled. The depots had to be weather-boarded. The iron alone remained unhurt, unchanged by the lapse of time and the dreadful effects of civil war. . . At Columbia [South Carolina] all the shops, depots, and buildings of every description, most of the valuable tools, many new and of the most approved makes, with all the appliances of as complete a shop, just finished, as, for its design, perhaps, the southern country could exhibit all these, together with a very large and most valuable collection of material, obtained only with great difficulty and at great expense, were utterly destroyed. On the line of road. . with rare exceptions, the entire wooden structures, cross-ties, culverts, station-houses, water-tanks experienced a like fate; and the rails burnt, twisted, and bent into shapes utterly baffling all efforts at restoration. 2. DESTITUTION AND WANT AMONG THE WHITES Suffering in the White Counties Senate Ex. Doc. no. 27, 39 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 68, 73, 77. Accounts of Freedmen's Bureau officials in Alabama. [1865] Two months ago women and children and broken down men came thirty and forty miles . . to beg a little food. . . Much destitution also exists among the families of the late rebels, for the soldiery, . . consumed their substance when the means of the Union people were all exhausted. Like Actaeon, they were eaten up by their own dogs. The general destitution has rendered many kindly disposed people unable to do anything for the negroes who were formerly their slaves, and who might be supposed to have some claims upon them for temporary assistance on that account, and there is much suffering among the aged and infirm, the sick and the helpless, of this class of people. It is a common, an every-day sight in Randolph county, that of women and children, most of whom were formerly in good circumstances, begging for bread from door to door. Meat of any kind has been a stranger to many of their mouths for months. The drought cut off what little crops they hoped to save, and they must have immediate help or perish. . . By far the greater suffering exists among the whites. Their scanty supplies have been exhausted, and now they look to government alone for support. Some are without homes of any description. This seems strange and almost unaccountable. Yet, on one road leading to Talladega I visited four families, within fifteen minutes' ride of town, who were living in the woods, with no shelter but pine boughs, and this in mid-winter. Captain Dean, who accompanied me, assured me that upon the other roads leading into town were other families similarly situated. These people have no homes. They were widows, with large families of small children. Other families, as their provisions fail, will wander in for supplies, and I am fearful the result will be a camp of widows and orphans. If possible, it should be prevented; and yet I saw about thirty persons for whom shelter must be provided, or death will speedily follow their present exposure and suffering. On the Confederate Frontier Annual Cyclopedia, 1865, p. 29. From the letters of Gov. Isaac Murphy of Arkansas. [December 9, 1865] THERE are thousands suffering in Arkansas for want of food and raiment, and who, unless speedily relieved, will, in many instances, during the winter, die from the effects of hunger and cold. . . The desolations of war in our state are beyond description. Suffering and poverty are, perhaps, more general in this than the other rebel States, from the fact that during the entire war an internal and bloody strife existed between the Union element and their rebel neighbors. . . Besides the utter desolation that marked the track of war and battle, guerrilla bands and scouting parties have pillaged almost every neighborhood north of the Arkansas River, also in the country south of the river, lying near the Indian boundary. It would be safe to say that two-thirds of the counties in the State are in destitute circumstances, and many will suffer for food and clothing this winter and spring, unless relieved by the noble kindness of the people of the Northern States. In Sherman's Track Annual Cyclopedia, 1865, p. 392. By a Northern newspaper corre spondent. [1865] PASSING Marietta [Georgia], where the usual marks of destruction appeared, I was interested by the appearance of a crowd gathered about one of the few remaining business buildings. I began to make inquiries, when they thronged about me and began the revelation of a degree of destitution that would draw pity from a stone. Thomas H. Moore, of respectable and even cultured address, introduced himself as the agent for the county, appointed by the State, for the distribution of supplies voted by the rebel Legislature to the people of North Georgia, after Sherman's passage. He said all these supplies had been long ago issued. He had himself, since, walked to Atlanta (having no horse), to procure more. A few hundred pounds had been furnished, which he was now distributing, but it amounted to a mere pittance, and he was obliged to reserve it for those who are already on the verge of starvation. Women . . hourly, come in from a distance of ten to fifteen miles afoot, leaving homes entirely destitute, in order to get a few mouthfuls to save the lives of their helpless children. After him came slaveholders, the wealthiest in the county one with sixty slaves, who complained that what had once made them the richest now made them the poorest. They had nothing to feed these people, without whose aid the crops could not be secured. Mr.- had told his negroes that if they would remain with him, now that they were free, he would compensate them, and share with them his lands, and they were anxious to do so; but . . the distributing officers refused to furnish the slaveholders, who, unless they could get aid, would, together with their negroes, starve. They all told me that no man in the country had more than two bushels of corn left. . . The commandant has mentioned a case that occurred yesterday. A poor woman came all the way into town on foot, from a distance of twenty miles, leaving at home a family of children who had had nothing to eat for twenty-four hours. Yet the most that could be done in answer to her appeal was to request the commissary, if possible, to supply her. . . There are 35,000 men, women, and children in the counties of Georgia, immediately surrounding Atlanta, who are dependent upon the United States Government for support and preservation from death by hunger. In the counties of North Georgia there must be at least as many more, for at every post and headquarters of the United States forces hundreds of appli cants are applying daily for relief. To such an extent does this state of affairs prevail that it seriously incommodes the troops; and though every effort has been made to relieve the suffering of the people yet vast destitution prevails among them. Bad Crops in 1865 Annual Cyclopedia, 1865, p. 788. Description by a traveller in Texas. Over the entire South for several years crops were uniformly bad. [1865] THE drought had nearly ruined the corn crops, and it is estimated that only one-half a crop will be made this season. The same will prove true of the potato crop. Cotton looks well, and we have been informed by all the citizens that they have never before seen such a fine and heavy yield as this season. We hear loud complaints everywhere of the scarcity of hands to pick and save it. And we saw acres of the finest cotton that ever grew dropping out of the bolls, and wasting for the want of hands to save it. The planters made contracts with their former slaves to remain with them and save the crops, but they proved unfaithful and deserted at the first opportunity. Thousands of bales of splendid cotton will be lost in Washington County by this cause, and the neighboring counties are no better off. Government Aid to the Destitute Annual Cyclopedia, 1865, p. 393. A Southern reporter's account. [1865] To get an idea of the immensity of the feeding establishments in this city [Atlanta] I will give you some items. During the month of June, there were issued to about fifteen thousand recipients: ninety-five thousand pounds of breadstuff, and the same amount of meat, together with the proper proportion of salt, coffee, sugar, soap, candles, and other articles. Since the 1st of July, the increase of recipients has been very large. A large number of refugees who are returning to their homes on Government transportation, also receive their subsistence here; and this addition has assisted very much to increase the amount |