Page 163 - Arkansas Confederate Women

142 Confederate Women of Arkansas

ly happened that quantities of cotton had been accumulated to
ship to Europe, and when it was seen that it would all fall into
the hands of the enemy, the Confederate general would order
it to be burned. Everybody would try to hide what they could.

My mother had saved some cotton belonging to my brother,

James, which she had stored in an outhouse and covered with
fodder. This was saved, and she sold it for $70 in gold, which

she buried, and when my brother came home she gave it to Mm.

The blockades, general and local, of those times made it very

difficult to procure the necessaries of life, even with gold. In
1865 flour was $17 a barrel and salt was $50 a barrel.

WHIPPED THE YANKEES WITH POPGUNS.

The tedious marches and the monotony of the camp was
often relieved by irrepressible humor and ready rustic wit. One
of the most amusing incidents was concluded only with the war.

An enthusiastic leader of the South had, at the outset of the

struggle, declared that if we seceded from the Union therei
would be no war, but even if there was we could readily whip
the Yankees with popguns. After the war, while addressing
an audience, he was asked by an old maimed soldier:

"I say, Judge, ain't you the same man that told us before
the war that we could whip the Yankees with popguns ?"

"Yes/"' replied the speaker, "and we could have done so,
but confound them, they would not fight us that way."