Shortages in The Valley 1864

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

OK...so been looking at foodstuffs in the Shenandoah Valley ca. 1864 for upcoming event, and came across some rather unsettling references:

Gen. BRECKINRIDGE, Dublin:

UNION,

April 11, 1864.

Your dispatch just received . I will do all that I can. There is nothing in this country to impress. I am trying to gather up a few potatoes. I have sent an agent to Staunton to try and borrow something for a few days, if he cannot do anything else. The men are on half rations of breadstuffs. I can work along four or five days longer.

JOHN ECHOLS,
Brig.-Gen.

The previous two winters (62-63, and 63-64) had been long, and cold...the Spring of 1864 brought with it an unseasonably wet season, which caused much of the crop to rot...while the Shenandoah is often referred to as the 'Breadbasket of the Confederacy' at least for us Easterners, perhaps the picture wasn't as rosey as we've been inclined to interpret in the past...

Paul B.

[ACo.]

Re: Shortages in The Valley 1864

The date is April 11. That is a little early for the growing season, things had just started to bud. The spring was wet, true, but the summer of 1864 was bountiful, one of the best in years. When The Burning took place, Federal troops destroyed bountiful crops and herds of animals were killed or driven off for use of the Union Army. There would be no more food from the Valley to sustain the Confederate war effort.

The above being said, keep in mind that in the spring during peacetime, people and livestock were still eating food stored over the winter from the previous growing season. The same was true in wartime of course, but during the war so much of the surplus - and even some that wasn't surplus - had been impressed to feed the Confederate army as well as the civilian population in the larger population centers so there was not too much surplus for overwintering. The further impressment by the government was nearly impossible, not because crops were failing, they weren't. It was too early in the growing season and there was little to confiscate from the farmers, the breadbasket was, for the time being, nearly empty and would remain so until after the war. The Valley didn't recover from the loss of male members of the farming community and the general destruction wrought by Sheridan's in 1864 troops until at least 1870.

[J. Donaldson]

Re: Shortages in The Valley 1864

Mr. Hern brings up a very good point. April is the heart of what I've seen period farmers refer to as the lean time. Those crops stored over the winter are beginning to run out, and you're still a long way from greens in the garden. Couple that with the bad weather you've mentioned, Confederate tax-in-kind collection, and foraging by forces in the area, and foodstuffs are mighty scarce.

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Shortages in The Valley 1864

The rather bitter winter reached its climax in March, 1864. At the beginning of that mother there was three to four inches of ice on the canal and traffic between Lynchburg and Lexington had been shut down for ‘about a week’. On the 22nd of the month a violent snowstorm swept in from the northeast and the next day the countryside was blanketed under eleven inches of snow, while to thermometer dropped to 3 degrees-the coldest day of the winter. But the season was well advanced; the cold snap soon gave way to warmer weather; and soon after the first of April General Rosser’s Cavalry, which had been ‘sent some days ago to this country...because supplies were so far exhausted

No doubt that the Shenandoah Valley may have fared better in production as compared against the rest of the war-torn countryside of Old Virginny, but the intent of my initial post and this post is to illustrate that we perhaps have a variance in how we portray this time/place with regards to certain impressions. I'm not suggesting that we start boiling shoe leather, or slaughter horses for food, but do seek to have discussion of the topic with interested parties...and yah, since this is still the AC, I'll be looking for references.


Paul B.

[ACo.]

Re: Shortages in The Valley 1864

If you want accurate information on the weather in the spring and summer of 1864 in the Valley of Virginia, read The Burning : Sheridan's Devastation of the Shenandoah Valley by John L. Heatwole. John's book is considered the best on the subject and you will find good documentation there. He also gives accurate description of the winter weather preceding the spring.

[4vaadjutant]

Re: Shortages in The Valley 1864

Below is some additional information about the supply of wheat, corn and hay in Rockbridge County, and what was available for the ANV even after the raid by Hunter's Yanks in June, 1864.

According to the Lexington Gazette and other local sources, Lexington and other towns throughout Rockbridge County (the home of Washington College and the Virginia Military Institute) were the sites of remount stations for cavalry and artillery horses of the Army of Northern Virginia, due in large part to the bumper crops of corn and hay that were available for the mounts. The camps were disbanded in the early spring when the horses and the cavalrymen who tended to them returned to Lee’s Army.

By early May, as Lee and Grant commenced campaigning in the Wilderness, the needs of the Commissary Department were felt as far away as Rockbridge County. According to the Lexington Gazette, Captain Henderson, the county commissary officer, forwarded 92,000 pounds of bacon he had collected through tithes, 5,700 pounds he had purchased and another 10,000 pounds that he had gathered from the rest of Rockbridge which he loaned to the government.

Crops appeared to be in sufficient supply even after the raid by “Black David” Hunter in June of 1864. The Lexington Gazette recorded that despite Union depredations in Rockbridge County, the wheat crop was described as fine “with an abundance for home consumption and a large surplus for the army, and for the general market.” The corn crop in certain areas was suffering from an extended drought.

Source: Lexington and Rockbridge County in the Civil War, Robert J. Driver, Jr.

Tom Williams
4th Virginia Infantry, Co. I
Indianapolis

[Stonewall_Greyfox]

Re: Shortages in The Valley 1864

The following is an example of the 'abundance' seen in the Valley during the war, and perhaps gives a glimpse to how competitive the market was getting:

Or one might mention such a luxurious necessity as milk. The contractor served notice that he would be unable to continue the milk contract after December 31, 1863 at the old rate of twenty cents, and stated the cost per gallon in the new year would be seventy-five cents

Anyone want to comment on the rate of inflation speculated?

With regards to the amount of foods being impressed, while it will seem that those numbers (92,000 + 5,700 + 10,000) may be in abundance that only works out to be approximately 3 days(1.5 lbs. per day per man) rations for 23,933 men. A single family slaughtering 2-3 hogs might yield up to 150-300 lbs...now if they've been stripped of a portion of this by 'impressment' or 'tax-in-kind', what does one suppose that leaves them with?

Paul B.

[ACo.]

Re: Shortages in The Valley 1864

Black Dave did do some damage but it was nothing compared to the damage done by Sheridan in Augusta, Rockingham and Shenandoah counties. And the farm output of Rockbridge was less than that of the the three counties mentioned above. Again, for an accurate account, read The Burning.

[4vaadjutant]

Re: Shortages in The Valley 1864

Gents:

The figures I gave from Rockbridge County were just that – reports of food supplies in one county of the Shenandoah Valley. I suspect there were other counties that were more bountiful and some were not so blessed. In an earlier post it was reported that rain was overabundant, which negatively impacted agricultural production in the areas affected. In Rockbridge, on the other hand, it was reported that the corn crop suffered from drought conditions. So, it was ostensibly a mixed bag of conditions in the Valley at that time. And, while the food reported from Rockbridge likely subsisted a given number of soldiers for a limited period of time, it must be kept in mind that when the ANV returned to Virginia from Gettysburg, Commissary General Northrop urged Lee to reduce the daily meat ration to one-fourth of a pound because of the limited inventory of the department. A review of the records does not reveal the likelihood of any significant improvement in supplies on hand or in the ration amount to the troops for the remainder of the war.

In fact, there is abundant evidence of food scarcity throughout Virginia from the summer of 1863 to the end of the war. A rather humorous diary entry by War Clerk J. B. Jones in Richmond shortly before Christmas, 1863 reads: “Such is the scarcity of provisions that rats and mice have mostly disappeared, and the cats can hardly be kept off the tables.”

At the beginning of 1864 the Subsistence Department reported the entire stock of breadstuffs in Richmond was exhausted and Commissary General Northrop was unable to supply the ANV. Flour and hard bread reserves were depleted and the daily arrival of corn was inadequate to meet needs. Lee reported on January 2 that he had only one days’ supply of meat for his troops and he expressed doubt about being able to retain his army in the field. Meanwhile, commissary stores accumulated in North Carolina sat in depots because the Southern railroads could not transport them to Virginia.

By mid-March the situation had not improved. The ANV was out of meat and had only one days’ ration of bread. Aggravating the situation was the loss of territory, the destruction of commissary stores on retreat and the cutting of railroads. Inflation also contributed to the department’s difficulties as in July 1864 wheat was selling for $30 and corn $20 a bushel – and the Subsistence Department’s lack of credit did not help things.

At about this time, the Confederate government finally condoned trading behind enemy lines and Northrop was authorized to purchase U. S. currency for that purpose. Northrop contended, with some logic, that the Confederacy should use cotton as the medium of purchase abroad because it was worth six times as much as gold and 120 times as much as Confederate money.

By the summer of 1864 the practice of impressment by the government had been legal for a year. It was a controversial measure that was at times abused and universally resented by a public that favored limited government intrusions in their lives. Southern historian E. Merton Coulter summed it up neatly: “The ubiquitous activities of the ‘pressmen,’ who conducted veritable raids on the private property of Confederate citizens, stirred up a storm of bitterness as they seized food, horses, wagons, and anything else they wanted, and too often left worthless promises to pay. It has been estimated that at the end of the war the Confederate government owed its citizens $500,000,000 for property it had impressed. Occasionally impostors claiming to be impressment agents carried off much property and left in exchange worthless receipts. This interference with the normal rights of the individual struck a fatal blow at the morale of the people.”

On September 15, 1864, Major S. B. French of the Commissary Department reported to Northrop that there was less than fifteen days’ supply of meat in Richmond and there were no reserves accumulated anywhere that could be drawn upon. The results of the efforts of the previous month to collect meat could not feed Lee’s Army for a week. French blamed this impairment on the lack of funds to purchase supplies and liquidate accrued indebtedness of the department. He pointed out that the practice of impressment was a failure because payment was required when goods were impressed. He argued: “Our restricted means will not enable us to offer currency, and the mass of people refuse to accept 6 per cent certificates and non-taxable bonds.”

A month later, October, 1864, the Commissary Department had only 41 days’ supply of beef for 100,000 men and only 34 days’ supply of bacon and pork. Combined, the resources would provide only 25 days’ rations for 300,000 men. To add to this distressing condition, the department was $30 million in debt by the end of October.

I hope this information helps the discussion.

Your ob’t servant,
Tom Williams
4th Virginia Infantry
Indianapolis