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Corn whiskey is why the Confederates were starving at war's end.
OK, maybe not.
Biofuels drive up corn prices today, right? Well, something similar happened during the Civil War. Roswell Guards Capt. Tom Edward King was wounded in the ankle while teaching his Yankee counterparts the Bull Run Quick Step at Bull Run. He was hospitalized at Richmond and then returned to Roswell, Georgia to recuperate. Never one to be idle, he began writing Jeff Davis. Apparently some Confederates were more interested in their own economic welfare than that of the Confederacy and it infuriated Capt. Roswell. You see, some folks were disposed towards distilling the corn rather than consuming it as food. Picking up his pen, he wrote that the "gates of hell" were driving up the price of corn and causing a severe shortage. "Unless a stop is put to this criminal waste of the staff of life, it will soon be out of the power of the families of our volunteers to get any and there will be suffering." Capt. Roswell was not alone in his indignation and Georgia Gov. Joseph Brown was also concerned. Before Davis acted, Brown issued a proclamation on Feb. 28, 1862 prohibiting the distillation of spirits and to conserve corn for consumption.
I got the above information from, "The Women Will Howl" by Debbie Petite. Told the story by in her childhood by her father, it has always captivated her. Petite then journeys to Roswell, Georgia to study the story of Sherman's forcible deportation of women and children mill workers from Roswell, Georgia to Indiana. The mill workers were providing cloth that would be made into uniforms for the Confederate Army and Sherman would not have it. Petite discusses the rules of war and Sherman's gradual progression from restraint in 1862 to hurt 'em all he can by 1864. The mill workers were unfortunates whose activity had to be curtailed. For a battle and bullet type of guy who avoids social history, this is one fascinating read.
Sounds like a book worth having, Gary. Personally, I think what irritated Sherman most about the Roswell women was the effort to pass off the factory as French-owned.
It would also seem that the Yanks weren't the only ones motivated by greed. The CSA had to step in and rule that a certain minimum percentage of goods brought in by blockade runners had to be useful to the armies and the ordinary consumer.a. It took a while for the CSA to convince planters that the Confederate effort would be better served with food crops than with cotton. (And in that they were not all that successful.)
In a way, distilling corn into whiskey made good sense -- in the tulles, whiskey was the same as cash. You could get a mule shod or a bag of flour with a jar or a jug. (As well as gain temporary forgetfulness.)
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
According to the folks back home, much of the mountain corn was distilled for 'medicinal' purposes. Tradition should have taken precedence over warfare.
Corn was necessary for fuel for military transportation to say the least, but there was still (no pun intended) the problem with decay and varmit consumption of the stockpiles, if a farmer was lucky enough to have one. Figuring the percentages, a little shine did not figure into enough fuel to stop an army. Distribution, or lack thereof, was more of the Confederate challenge. Lots of yankees came down and harvested their own fuel. 'Might as well have been 'pored on the ground'.
At least the brew could keep one from worrying about the yanks for a couple of hours. It was a fascinatin' time.... troubles all around.
__________________ Ancestors in US Army: 13th TN Cav; 10th TN Cav; 3rd NC Inf
Ancestors in CSA Army: 48th VA; 63rd VA, 5th NC Cav; 37th NC
Wife and Grandson's CSA: 15th AL, 51st GA, 41st TN; 36th TN; GA Mil 1197 Dist
According to the folks back home, much of the mountain corn was distilled for 'medicinal' purposes. Tradition should have taken precedence over warfare.
Corn was necessary for fuel for military transportation to say the least, but there was still (no pun intended) the problem with decay and varmit consumption of the stockpiles, if a farmer was lucky enough to have one. Figuring the percentages, a little shine did not figure into enough fuel to stop an army. Distribution, or lack thereof, was more of the Confederate challenge. Lots of yankees came down and harvested their own fuel. 'Might as well have been 'pored on the ground'.
At least the brew could keep one from worrying about the yanks for a couple of hours. It was a fascinatin' time.... troubles all around.
Jugs of whiskey were also easier to conceal than a corn crib when the Confederate tax-in-kind agents came around on their crop confiscating missions.
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
James Roswell King signed over partial interest in the mill to an employee, Theophile Roche, a French National. Roche raised the tricolor over the factory as well as Bulloch Hall, where he resided as a guest. Both King and Roche hoped that the Union army would respect French neutrality.
James Roswell King signed over partial interest in the mill to an employee, Theophile Roche, a French National. Roche raised the tricolor over the factory as well as Bulloch Hall, where he resided as a guest. Both King and Roche hoped that the Union army would respect French neutrality.
I wonder how long the flag lasted and how many bullet holes were counted when it was last seen?
__________________ Ancestors in US Army: 13th TN Cav; 10th TN Cav; 3rd NC Inf
Ancestors in CSA Army: 48th VA; 63rd VA, 5th NC Cav; 37th NC
Wife and Grandson's CSA: 15th AL, 51st GA, 41st TN; 36th TN; GA Mil 1197 Dist
The primary reason the French flag trick didn't work to discourage Union efforts was all those "CSA" stamps found on the cloth and other items within the factory.
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
The problem with the Confederacy was it had an inadequate railroad system to ship supplies. Then it was a problem of repairing the railroads without new rails.
There were stories of rotting food at the rail depots. There was also the lack of adequate transportation to get supplies to the rail lines. There was plenty of corn in southwest Georgia and Alabama late in the war. The major problem is Sherman's army cut the rail lines to Virginia in Georgia.
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Corn whiskey is why the Confederates were starving at war's end. 
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