y around her and led her away.

On the day Lee left Richmond for the front to meet Grant's invading
host, the Confederate President was in agony over a letter from General
Winder portraying the want and suffering among the prisoners confined at
Andersonville.

"If we could only get them across the Mississippi," Davis cried, "where
beef and supplies of all kind are abundant--but what can we do for them
here?"

"Our men are in the same fix," Lee answered quickly, "except that
they're free. These sufferings are the result of our necessity, not of
our policy. Do not distress yourself."

The South was entering now the darkest hours of her want. The market
price of food was beyond the reach of the poor or even the moderately
well-to-do. Turkeys sold for $60 each. Flour was $300 a barrel, corn
meal $50 a bushel. Boots were $200 a pair. A man's coat cost $350--his
trousers $100. He could get along without a vest. Wood was $50 a cord.
It took $1,800 to buy $100 in gold.

In the midst of this universal suffering the yellow journals of the
South, led by the Richmond _Examiner_, made the most bitter and
determined assaults on Davis to force him to a policy of retaliation on
Northern prisoners.

"Hoist the black flag!" shrieked the _Examiner_. "Retaliate on these
Yankee prisoners for the starvation and abuse of our men in the North--a
land teeming with plenty." The President was held up to the scorn and
curses of the Southern people because with quiet dignity he refused to
lower the standard of his Government to a policy of revenge on helpless
soldiers in his power.

To a Committee of the Confederate Congress who waited on him with these
insane demands he answered with scorn:

"You dare ask me to torture helpless prisoners of war! I will resign my
office at the call of my country. But no people have the right to demand
such deeds at my hands!"

In answer to this brave, humane stand of the Southern President the
_Examiner_ had the unspeakable effrontery to accuse him of clemency to
his captives that he might curry favor with the North and shield himself
if the South should fail.

No characteristic of Davis was more marked than his regard for the weak,
the helpless and the captive. His final answer to his assailants was to
repeat with emphasis his orders to General Winder to see to it that the
same rations issued to Confederate soldiers in the field should be given
to all prisoners of war, though taken from a starving arm