February 6, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
The report of the Secretary of War recently sent into Congress, communicates some interesting and most encouraging information in relation to our military affairs, and present the encouraging conclusion that our army is fully equal, if not superior, in all the elements of strength, to what it has been at any previous period of the war. Its numbers, though still seriously inadequate to fill fully its organizations, yet afford a nearer approximation than heretofore to that result.
SUPPLIES OF ORDNANCE AND MUNITIONS.
Measures to afford adequate supplies of ordnance, arms and munitions for the army have claimed the earnest attention of the Department. The increased stringency of the blockade by the enemy, while it has made the importation of sufficient supplies more difficult and costly, has at the same time induced more energetic efforts to find and develope all internal resources. The results, so far, are very encouraging. Our present supplies, the Secretary says, are at least as abundant as they have been at any time past, and our prospect for the future more promising. Two establishments, in addition to the leading one heretofore existing at this city for making ordnance, have been founded in interior towns under the auspices of the Department, one of which is already in successful operation, and the other will be in a very short time. Besides these same similar establishments have been fostered and engaged in similar works. Thus the serious anxiety which resulted from dependence on one establishment, liable to be interrupted by casualties or the chances of war, has been removed, and a larger provision secured for future supplies. Of small arms, the Department can now furnish stores more adequate to the requirements of the army than at any preceding date, while of munitions it entertains now no dread of deficiency. In these particulars also, by the encouragement and establishment of manufactures within the Confederacy, the Department is daily becoming less dependent on foreign supply, and indulges the hope that it will, at no remote period, be able to dispense altogether with that reliance.
THE IRON INTEREST.
The most serious embarrassment to be apprehended in reference to the ordnance supplies, is in the deficiency of iron. Before the war, nearly all iron works within the States of the Confederacy had languished or decayed, and from the sense of precariousness in the future and the scarcity of suitable labor, it has been very difficult to establish them in sufficient numbers and on an adequate scale to meet the necessities of the war. It has been necessary that the department should stimulate enterprise by large advances and liberal contracts, and likewise contribute by details to the supply of labor. Many new furnaces have been established, and those in operation have been enlarged and tempted to continue more uninterruptedly in blast. If the contracts made with the department are only fully carried out it is believed by the Secretary the supply will prove adequate, but there are many difficulties in the prosecution of the work from the enhancement of all prices, and from the temptations constantly offered to contractors to prefer the superior profits which they can command from speculators.
FORAGE AND SUBSISTENCE.
The report of the Secretary with reference to the question of subsistence, while not alarming, suggests the most anxious and uppermost considerations of the day. The harvests of the past season have not generally proved propitious, and notwithstanding the much larger breadth of land devoted to the culture of cereals and forage, the product in many extensive districts of the Confederacy is below the average, and in some even threatens scarcity. The cost and want of transportation make difficult the collection, distribution and equalization of such products. In addition, the ravages of war, prosecuted by our malignant enemies in shameful violation of all civilized usage for the ends of rapine or destruction, have desolated considerable districts of fertile country. The districts thus devastated have been, too, mainly those which have heretofore afforded the largest supplies of meat. The rearing of animals for food has been since the war very generally increased throughout the Confederacy, and from other districts larger supplies than heretofore may be expected. Still the scarcity of grain and forage must check considerably this increased production, and render adequate supplies for the future more doubtful.
It may be added that one grave cause of difficulty in the procurement of supplies is the inflation of the currency. This inflation has caused a great enhancement of all prices, and inspired a general and inordinate spirit of speculation. As the cause of enhancement has been and must be continuous, being the necessary issue of Treasury notes, so the increase in prices has been, and without check from legislation must be, steadily progressive. This is so understood or has been so experienced by all classes, that there is the strongest repugnance on the part of all having necessary supplies to sell to part with them at the exaggerated current rates, from the conviction that a longer holding will assure still higher prices. This motive is so influential and general, that it is next to impossible to supply the necessities of the Government at fair prices, or by voluntary contracts.