, a law was necessitated against importation of all
articles, not of utility; forbidden luxuries being named per schedule.
That its constant evasion--if not its open defiance--was very simple,
may be understood; for the blockade firms had now become a power
coequal with Government, and exceptions were listed, sufficient to
become the rule.

And so the leeches waxed fat and flourished on the very life-blood of
the cause, that represented to them--opportunity! And, whatever has
been said of speculators at Richmond, they were far less culpable than
these, their chiefs; for, without the arch-priests of greed,
speculation would have died from inanition. The speculators were most
hungry kites; but their maws were crammed by the great vultures that
sat at the coast, blinking ever out over the sea for fresh gains; with
never a backward glance at the gaunt, grim legions behind
them--naked--worn--famished, but unconquered still!

Transportation needs have been noted, also. No department was worse
neglected and mismanaged than that. The existence of the Virginia army
wholly depended on a single line, close to the coast and easily tapped.
Nor did Government's seizure of its control, in any manner remedy the
evil. Often and again, the troops around Richmond were without
beef--once for twelve days at a time; they were often without flour,
molasses or salt, living for days upon cornmeal alone! and the
ever-ready excuse was want of transportation!

Thousands of bushels of grain would ferment and rot at one station;
hundreds of barrels of meat stacked at another, while the army starved
because of "no transportation!" But who recalls the arrival of a
blockader at Charleston, Savannah, or Wilmington, when its ventures
were not exposed at the auctions of Richmond, in time unreasonably
short!

These facts are not recalled in carping spirit; nor to pronounce
judgment just where the blame for gross mismanagement, or favoritism
should lie. They are recorded because they are historic truth; because
the people, whom they oppressed and ruined--saw, felt and angrily
proclaimed them so; because the blockade mismanagement was
twin-destroyer with the finance, of the southern cause.

The once fair cities of Charleston, Savannah and Wilmington suffered
most from the blockade, both in destruction of property and
demoralization of their populations. The first--as "hot-bed of treason"
and equally from strategic importance--was early a point of Feder