June 10, 1863, Southern Banner (Athens, Georgia)
Rev. H. B. Pratt Chaplain of the Sixty-third North Carolina, writes to the N. C. Presbyterian:
Allow me to make another suggestion.–Down in these swamp lands of Eastern North Carolina, we find an innumerable multitude of what are called “cypress knees.” They come up like little tumuli from the swampy, miry earth, and are of rather a pithy nature. If some enterprising workman would cut these up by a circular saw, into blocks of a convenient size, and by an easily contrived knife, give them a proper shape, he could make a small fortune, as well as confer a benefit on the public, by supplying the country with “Confederate corks.” Black gum root, well dried, is better still, and both cuts and takes shape better than cork itself. A drop of warm cement, (1 part wax or tallow and 2 of rosin,) on the top of these corks would make them equal to the best made in Sparta or Portugal, and infinitely superior to the miserable article we commonly see.