The Struggles of Secession

• Bedingfield Inn (built 1836)
• Masonic Female College is razed in 1852
• No railroads till 1886. The railroads had been built in the 1850s to the north and south of Lumpkin which led to a slow decline.
• Wooden Courthouse until 1895.
• Cotton was its primary crop. (3rd largest cotton producing county in GA.)
• Major stagecoach hub.
• City in decline by 1861 due to soil erosion, population decline and the lack of a rail station.
• 1860 population of Lumpkin was 1,476.
• 1860 population of Stewart County was 13,422.

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• Civil War Infantry regiments included:
  • 2nd GA Infantry - "Stewart Grays" – Co. K – Benning’s Brgd, ANV
  • 21st  GA, Company I - "Stewart Infantry" (this who we portrayed in 2008) –
  • Doles & Cooks Brgde –ANV
  • 17^th GA Infantry – Co. I
  • 31^st GA, Bartow Guards – Co. E – Lawton-Gordon-Evans Brgde, ANV
  • 46^th GA – Xollicoffers Guards – Co. G – Gists Brgde, Army of SC
  • 3^rd GA Cavalry – Co. E – Rawson Rangers - AoT

Notable People of Lumpkin, GA / Stewart Cty, GA

• Gen. Clement Evans 39th GA Infantry
• Prentiss Stanley Co. d, 12th Bn. GA Cavalrty
  • son of Loverd & Elizabeth Bryan
• Johan George Singer - Singer Shoemaker Shop
  • son: Joseph Singer - 2nd GA Inf "Stewart Grays"
  • son: John Singer - Co. E, 31st GA reg.
• Temperence Carr - Widow to George Singer (Johan's uncle) and GGGGGGrandmother to 1st lady Roslyn Carter.
• John Singer II - Tailor and Johan's Brother.
• Edward McDonald - son of Scottish immigrants and wealthy cotton warehouse owner.
• James John McDonald - Edward's eldest son.
• Col Crew's cavalry - Iverson's GA Brgde.
• Lizzie Rutherford - (from Columbus, GA) Active in the Soldier's Aid Society.

Some blockaded/Restricted Goods:

- Laudnum and other medications                - Dyes

- Rum                                                                   - Flour

- Coffee                                                                 - Hemp

- Salt                                                                      - Textiles

- Cotton cards ($10/pair)                                 - Spices

- Leather                                                              - Tea

- Sugar                                                                  - more

Inflationary Prices: (based on Columbus, GA newspapers in Confederate currency)

Mar. 1862    Jul. 1863    Nov. 1863    Mar. 1865

Corn (bushel)           $1.10             $2.50           $5.00          $15.00

Sugar (lb.)                     .50               2.00              3.00              8.00

Butter (lb.)                    .40               1.00               3.00             7.00

Cotton (lb.)                   .16                  .41                  .60                .75

Tobacco (lb.)                .60               1.75                  ----              7.10

Bacon (lb.)                    .40               1.50                 ----                ----

Coffee (lb.)               40.00         180.00                 ----                ----

Survival Skills/Crafts/Substitutes:

• Making vinegar
• Red Bark, raspberry or whortleberry leaf tea – treats diarrhea
• Spanish potatoes to treat bowels
• Peach, mayapple, butternut roots – laxative
• Making ropes from bear grass, sunflower stalks and cotton
• Making ink from walnut hulls or pokeberries
• Making pens from goose feathers
• Envelopes from newspaper or just fold up letter
• Use of old bottles for drinking glasses
• Make soap from myrtle, rosin and chinaberries
• Extracting salt from smoke houses, seawater or brine troughs
• Mixing dogwood and willow bark with tobacco can make it last longer
• Making or using pottery or wooden cups, plates or bowls
• Making lamp oil from cottonseed and ground peas or lard oil
• Making beeswax, lard or tallow candles
• Collecting and using pine knots for light (no fires in any of the buildings)
• Making clothing, if textiles available.
• Simulate making items from horsehide, dogskins or pigskin as a replacement for leather
• Raising and shearing sheep for much needed wool
• Creating cloth by combining dog hair and cow hair (slaves and poor whites only)
• Creating durable cloth by mixing rabbit or raccoon fur or wearing of animal skins
• Making dyes from barks, leaves, twigs, berries, walnut hulls, pine tree roots, wild indigo and myrtle
• Making and using buttons made of thick leather, gourd shells, wound thread, persimmon seeds and wood.
• Making bonnets from corn shucks, palmettos, bulrushes, pine straw and sometimes wool (wool was expensive)
• Burning and collection of corn cob ashes as a replacement for baking soda
• Use of brown sugar, sorghum, honey and boiled down watermelon juice as replacement for sugarcane
• Growing and Use of Peanuts – (note: peanuts were rarely grown prior to the war) also called: goobers, pindars, ground peas
• Peanut candy, feed for hogs, cattle and parched peanuts were popular
• Common vegetables grown: cabbage, peas, beans, squash, sweet potatos
• Most meats are smoked due to limited supply of salt
• Coffee Substitutes: parched rye (this was one of the best, but limited in supply), parched peanuts, okra, sweet potatos, acorns, peas, beans, dandelion roots, cottonseeds, etc
• Make homemade muscodine or blackberry wines
• Home distilled whiskey replaced imported rum
• Stills making private use liquor from most grains and produce was forbidden by the CSA government unless licensed (this law was frequently ignored)

Taxes:

• Cotton Seed (intended to limit cotton supply and encourage food stuffs)
• 10% tax on cotton over 2500 lbs of seed (was never enforced)
• Tax in Kind – 10% tax on all farm items, livestock, food, fodder and tobacco
• Property taxes in Stewart County were 3 times normal to cover expenses for Soldier’s Family Relief
• No taxes on slaves.

Impressment:

• Georgian’s were openly encouraged to not comply with CSA Impressment Agents
• Georgia Impressment Agents were to be complied with and this was enforced
• Agents would pay for goods at fixed prices that never kept up with rampant inflation

Military/Conscription/Deserters:

• By end of 1863, half of Confederate army has deserted
• Deserters form small raiding parties (especially in SE Alabama)
• Deserters from the 3^rd GA Regiment openly defiant to returning to the army
• Conscription of poor, weak and sickly occurred while the wealthy received exemptions.
• Exemptions: see article on ‘Exemptions’ page on this site

1863 Confederate Congressional Elections:

• In Chattahoochee Valley it was the Mechanics or Workers Party vs the pro-Davis Democrats.  The Mechanics and Workers Party won most elections 5 to 1.
• Platforms: Anti-Davis Gov’t 5 to 1 against Pro-Davis Gov’t
• Anti-Impressment 5 to 1 against the Pro-Impressment
• Anti-Conscription 5 to 1 against the Pro-Conscription

Notes on Cotton:

• 1793 - Eli Whitney invents the Cotton Gin - Increases cotton production 8 fold.
  Cotton utilizes a Hoe Ridge Cultivation.
  Tools required: Cultivators, harrows, side harrows and double shovels.
  Planting Cycle
  Feb-March: Clean out old debris. Seed bed setup.
  April-May: Planting.
  May-June: Plants thinned. Swept and hoed 3-4 times.
  June: Cotton blooms. Plant height is 6"-12".
  Late July-Early Aug.: Cotton Bolls open.
  Aug 20: Picking Begins.
  Sept-Jan. Shipping to Markets.
  Avg Yields = 100-1500 lbs per acre.
  Slaves average picked per day = 120 lbs.
  All slaves (domestic, cook, house, etc) were utilized during picking season.
  Total 1860 US Production = 1.9 million lbs.
  1860 US Production equaled 2/3 of worlds supply.
  A 400 lb bail requires 1200-1500 lbs of cotton produced.
  Price per 400 lb bail in 1860 averaged $49.60 per bail. (12.4 cents per lb.)
  1861 - Confederacy places embargos on cotton to Europe.

By 1861, SW Georgia alone imported over half a million bushels of corn, as they  relied upon cotton and not food crops.  During war, cotton smuggled thru Confederate lines and thru the Union blockade.  By 1863, consignment warehouse were full and price of cotton was at a peak.  Most cotton went to mills in the northeast US (even during the war!).  Speculators, smugglers and plantation owners continue to profit during the war.