What problems did the Confederacy face at home?

Printed Page 441

image
Figure false: Confederate Soldiers and Their Slaves
Figure false: Soldiers of the Seventh Tennessee Cavalry pose with their slaves. Many slaveholders took “body servants” with them to war. These slaves cooked, washed, and cleaned for the white soldiers. In 1861, James H. Langhorne reported to his sister: “Peter … is charmed with being with me & ‘being a soldier.’ I gave him my old uniform overcoat & he says he is going to have his picture taken … to send to the servants.” Do you think Peter was “puttin’ on ol’ massa” or just glad to be free of plantation labor? Daguerreotype courtesy of Tom Farish. Photographed by Michael Latil.
Figure false: VISUAL ACTIVITY
Figure false: READING THE IMAGE: What can we glean from this image about a Confederate soldier’s life in the military?
Figure false: CONNECTIONS: This daguerreotype likely was not taken for any purpose other than to capture the camaraderie of four southern cavalrymen, yet the inclusion of the two slaves speaks volumes. What are the possible ramifications of slaveholders bringing “body servants” to war?

BY SECEDING, Southerners brought on themselves a firestorm of unimaginable fury. Monstrous losses on the battlefield nearly bled the Confederacy to death. Southerners on the home front also suffered, even at the hands of their own government. Efforts by the Davis administration in Richmond to centralize power in order to fight the war convinced some men and women that the Confederacy had betrayed them. They charged Richmond with tyranny when it impressed goods and slaves and drafted men into the army. War also meant severe economic deprivation. Shortages and inflation hurt everyone, some more than others. By 1863, unequal suffering meant that planters and yeomen who had stood together began to drift apart. Most disturbing of all, slaves became open participants in the destruction of slavery and the Confederacy.

CHRONOLOGY

1862

  • – Confederate Congress authorizes draft.

1863

  • – Bread riots break out in the South.