Page 112 - Arkansas Confederate Women

WEAVING JEANS FOR THE CONFEDERATES.

By Mrs. M. C. Livingston, of Hope.

I am now over 78 years old and am blessed with my second

eyesight for the past three years, not needing glasses. When

my husband enlisted in the Confederate army I was left with

Myfive children. oldest child was 10 years old and the young-

est six weeks. We were living upon a farm and now there was

no one to make a crop for me. I hired the wheat sowed, raised

my own meat and bought corn. Two of my children learned

to card and spin, and we gave many a yard of cloth for a bushel

of corn.

WEAVING JEANS FOR CONFEDERATES.
The soldiers needed clothing and the quartermasters would
encourage the women to weave jeans and sell it to the govern-
ment. In this way I managed to have a little money 'all the

time. A Mr. Murphy used to tan leather and make our shoes,

for which we would pay in jeans.

SALT TEN DOLLARS A BUSHEL.
Some men in Louisana made salt there and peddled it out
in Arkansas at the rate of $10 a bushel. I was able to buy

some every trip they made to my house.

FEDERAL RAIDERS.

It was a lonely time for me, with only my children for
companions. How scared I was when the Federal raiders came
the first time! They did not treat me as badly as they did
several of my neighbors. They killed some of my cattle and
took all my meat except a few middlings, having got all my

honey, butter, eggs, and all the chickens that they could catch.

My husband was not a strong man, and was frequently in

the hospital. I wrote to him to keep all the money that he had
to buy things for himself, and that I would take care of the

family. For six months I did not hear from him, and I was in

a fearful state of mind.