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7 ‘‘Going up the Spout’’: Converging Defeat on the Battlefield and Home Front P erhaps the Civil War’s greatest impact on children,’’ Steven Mintz has noted, ‘‘was on family life.’’ The widows, children, poor, and elderly of South Carolina paid dearly. South Carolina households went ‘‘up the spout’’ because the war drained their districts of doctors and skilled artisans vital to the smooth functioning of their communities. Men critically needed at home were swept up into the vortex of the battlefield; thousands died. Many more became sick and wounded. Morale at home sunk with shortages, inflation , and an ever-increasing list of casualties. Poor households suffered egregiously , while the economic viability of yeoman families hung in the balance. Refugees strained an already difficult situation. Life-threatening diseases struck the civilian population. Competition between the battlefield and home for supplies and skills encouraged demoralization, which spawned conspiracy theories. In the end, the state was broken long before Sherman left Atlanta for Savannah.1 Letters of appeal sent to the Confederate secretary of war from 1862 to 1865 offer a window on the economic hardships and suffering of fragile households and their surrounding neighborhoods. The letters from South Carolina show a growing number of widows and children unprotected, deteriorating conditions, and a sense of desperation as the war continued. These letters highlight the sacrifice made by the Upcountry where the mortality rate was most extreme (see Appendix A, Appendix B, and the tables throughout this chapter). Cameos and recollections are placed in a larger perspective.2 The most critical commodities for daily life were leather, flour, meat, salt, and cotton cards. In the face of shortages, prices skyrocketed. In December 1862 soldiers with a ‘‘moderately sized family’’ could not afford shoes, bread, and meat on their monthly pay of eleven dollars. Shoes became scarce and expensive as numerous leather products from saddles to boots were increasingly needed by the army. The prices of flour and salt jumped, especially in the cities. By December 1862, salt cost between $15 and $20 a bushel. That year some people had already given up eating meat; it was too expensive. Women found themselves hard pressed to feed their families. In March 1863 the Confederate Baptist feared the ‘‘cry of famishing children’’ would lead ‘‘unsexed’’ women to sack ‘‘granaries.’’ At the end of 1864 woman teachers were barely able to pur- 76 Converging Defeat on the Battlefield and Home Front chase a calico dress, muslin, and a pair of shoes with a nine-month salary averaging $60 to $80 a month. Imagine the desperation of a family trying to live off a private’s pay. In 1864 the cost of meat was so prohibitive, it was rumored dogs were being sold at auction for $250 apiece in Augusta. ‘‘Rather high for sausage meat,’’ a Yorkville newspaper caustically quipped. Simultaneously, more physicians , blacksmiths, wheelwrights, shoemakers, tanners, millers, and overseers were being sent from the home front to the battlefield.3 The demand for physicians was greatest in the rural Upcountry where the mortality rate for soldiers was the highest (see Table 7.1). Between 1862 and late 1864, twenty-eight exemptions, discharges, and details for doctors reached the desk of the Confederate secretary of war (see Table 7.2). Eighteen (69.2 percent) were from the Upcountry, two (7.7 percent) from the Lowcountry, which had medical facilities in Charleston. In Upcountry districts, women and children felt the brunt. In July 1862 citizens of Fairfield District requested that Thomas B. McKinstry be sent back. The area, twenty miles long and fifteen miles wide, was ‘‘destitute’’ of medical help. In August 1862 a minister told Jefferson Davis that the doctor was ‘‘indispensable’’ to women, children, and slaves.4 Doctors in the Upcountry districts such as Abbeville and Lancaster were overwhelmed with work. They had to treat civilians and an increasing number of seriously sick and injured soldiers. In August 1862 citizens from Greenwood in Abbeville District complained that there was only one doctor within fifteen Table 7.1 Physicians Upcountry 18 Lowcountry 2 Other 6 Districts unknown 2 Total 28 Table 7.2 Total Requests for Select Exemptions, Discharges, and Details Year 1862 1863 1864 1865 Category Totals Physicians 13 10 5 0 28 Blacksmiths / wheelwrights 14 15 6 0 35 Shoemakers / tanners 14 8 5 0 27 Millers / millwrights 3 2 1 1 7 Overseers / agriculturalists 53 39 25 1 118 Year totals 97 74 42 2 215 [3...

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