Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 3

[354] these results of the war were having their natural effect, even in regions where the tread of a hostile army had not been known. The children of wealthy parents in Richmond went shoeless. The greatest ladies wore coarser garments than they had furnished their own servants in other days. In fine houses, black beans were served on silver dishes, and costly wine—all that was left of ancient luxuries—garnished the commonest fare. Every household mourned the loss of a favorite member. Many were deprived of all support and stricken to the earth by the calamities of war. The hospitals were crowded, and not only delicacies but medicines were difficult, and often impossible, to procure for those whose lives depended on their obtaining them.

There was, besides, the constant feeling of uneasiness about the slaves. Wherever the national armies penetrated, slavery was at an end. The field hands deserted their masters by tens of thousands at a time. The house servants, it is true, with the affectionate docility of their race, were generally faithful, and the entire slave population abstained from plunder and worse crimes, incident to a servile revolution, with a unanimity that was one of the most remarkable features of the war. Neither murder nor arson was committed; there was no revengeful or lustful passion displayed by these millions waiting to be freed, who struck no blow against their masters at this crisis in the fate of both. But none the less, the millions believed that they were the great stake of the war; that it was to free them every battle was fought. Their wishes were all for the invaders; and such help as in their simple, ignorant, but earnest way they could afford was never