Of the hundred battles fought only that of Gettysburg was on Northern
soil. The beautiful lands of the garden spot of earth, as I have said,
were torn and pillaged and ruined, not alone by the fortunes of
civilized warfare, but by the ghastly horrors of cruelty and needless
vandalism. It is not the purpose of this paper to fight those battles
over. The strife lasted four years. The population of the North was
22,000,000; that of the South 9,000,000, of whom three and one-half
millions were slaves. The North was four times as great in numbers
as the South.

The North had three times as many armies. The South could not get enough
small arms for many months. All foundries for cannon, and all except two
powder mills were in the North. The North had food and provisions in
abundance. The South planted cotton and tobacco, but could not even in
times of peace, raise enough food, but were accustomed to buy from the
North and from Europe.

The Union had a treasury and a navy: the Confederacy had neither.
The North could renew supplies from abroad. The Southern ports were
blockaded and many necessaries of life were shut off. The Confederacy
set to work to make arms, ammunitions, blankets, saddles, harness,
and other necessities. Bells from churches and halls, dinner bells,
plantation and fire bells, along with stray pieces of metal, were melted
and cast into cannon. Old nails were saved and blacksmiths made of them
clumsy needles, pins and scissors.

For coffee was used burnt rye, okra, corn, bran, chickory and sweet
potato peelings. For tea, raspberry leaves, corn fodder and sassafras
root. There was not enough bacon to be had to keep the soldiers alive.
Sorghum was used for sugar.