ily more so. The
Confederate money had so depreciated in value that a paper dollar was
not worth more than a penny, and by-and-by it had absolutely no value at
all. The farce of such a currency caused many grim jests among the
Confederates themselves. Thus an officer gave his colored servant five
thousand dollars to curry his horse, and another officer exchanged six
months of his own pay for a paper dollar. In truth, the Southerners were
fighting without pay, while their clothing and food were of the poorest
character. All the men being in some branch of the service, the women
had to look after the homes that were running to waste. The conscription
act was made so rigid that the drag-net gathered in the large boys and
men past middle life.

PROSPERITY OF THE NORTH.

It was far different in the North. The enormous demands of the
government for war supplies gave the country an unnatural prosperity.
Although prices were high, there was an abundance of money, which, while
depreciating to some extent, never did so to a degree to cause distress.
The resources were almost limitless, and the conviction was so general
that the war was near its conclusion, that the greenback currency and
the national bonds began to rise in value. The real dissatisfaction was
in the continual demand for more soldiers. In the course of the year
fully 1,200,000 men had been summoned to the ranks. Several drafts took
place, and bounties were paid, which in many instances were at the rate
of a thousand dollars to a man. A good many people began to declare this
demand exorbitant, and that, if the real necessity existed, the Union
was not worth such an appalling cost of human life.

WAR'S DESOLATION.

Behind all this seeming prosperity were thousands of mourning households
and desolate hearthstones in the North as well as the South. Fathers,
brothers, and sons had fallen, and would nevermore return to their loved
ones. The shadow was everywhere. Sorrow, broken-hearts, and lamentation
were in the land, for war, the greatest curse of mankind, spares neither
parent, child, nor babe. The exchange of prisoners, carried on almost
from the very opening of the war, ceased, because the Confederate
authorities refused to exchange negro soldiers. As a consequence,
multitudes of Union prisoners suffered indescribable misery in many of
the Southern prisons. This was especially the case in Andersonville,
Georgia, where a brute named Wirz, a Swiss, showed a fi