Thus closes my notes for the month of December and also for the year just passed and gone and now numbered with the things that were. Whether the Almighty will spare me to chronicle the daily events of the incoming year is more than I know but trusting in Him I shall enter upon the pleasing task, which is useful as a reference and may be profitable to those who have an interest in me.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Tuesday, November 5th, 1861
To day was rather dull in the way of business. I put the boys to digging potatoes. My house has come to another stand still and I am sorely perplexed with the sloth of the workmen. weather changeable & warm.
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150 years ago . . . MEMPHIS DAILY APPEAL [MEMPHIS, TN], November 5, 1861, p. 1, c. 1
ReplyDeleteLieut. Sellers, of the Bayou City Guards, writes to the Houston Telegraph:
["] A pair of gray blankets, not as good as your Main street merchants formerly purchased in the North at $2 25 to $2 50 per pair, are sold here at $9, and scarce at that. Gray satinets, of Yankee make, which I have sold wagon loads of at 60 to 65 cents per yard, are $3 25. Gray and other light mixed cottonade, tweeds, and other fulled cloths, formerly worth 45 cents per yard, are now scarce and difficult to find at $1 87 to $2 per yard.
In taking the government commutation money for clothing -- $20 per man — we are expected to provide ourselves with uniform coats, pants and overcoats, which cannot be had, fit to wear, for less than from $43 to $45; and if we purchase only coats and pants, and draw overcoats from the government, they will be deducted from our pay, which, at $11 per month for the privates, will not leave much room for socks, under clothing, and many other articles of absolute necessity.
In active service we cannot carry much baggage, and hence want only a few articles, but these require to be of the right kind — heavy and warm. Hence, in the event of your sending any articles for the Texas troops, confine the list to blankets, wool socks and mittens, and flannel drawers and undershirts. Nothing fine, but all heavy and warm.["]
A member of Capt. Strobel's company, Terry's regiment, writes from camp near Nashville:
["] As we passed through New Orleans we noticed an immense aggregation of clothing, which was made up by voluntary contributions for the Louisiana troops. Tennessee is doing the same thing. Throughout the country the women are knitting socks and making warm clothing for their soldiers, and it is being collected at every county seat and forwarded on to them. It is becoming quite cool here already, and of nights takes our all to keep us warm. Everything is enormously high here. Common blankets very scarce, and at $8 and $10. The most common yarn socks 75 cents, boots from $6 to $16. Very few of our boys have any money, and some now stand in need of clothing.["]