March 1, 1861 (Friday)

Where's the beef? -- To the Confederacy,
From Texas with love.

In an article by Richard Parker, Disunion--New York Times, February 28, 1861 entitled, "The Lone Star State Turns South," we learn about what effect the State of Texas had on the Confederacy in the coming years.  Two anecdotes that struck me:

"Texans readied the beef, too, that the Confederacy needed to feed its new army.  The short-legged English cattle from north Texas quickly proved ill-equipped for the long drive east.  The tough, nearly drought-proof Spanish longhorn, however, was up to the task.  Cowboys herded thousands of them in south and southeast Texas for the drive across Louisiana and the Mississippi River."

"Texas's secession ordinance went into effect the day after Lincoln's inauguration, March 5; all government officials were required to swear an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy.  In Austin Gov. Sam Houston, a staunch Unionist who had fought secession throughout the crisis, told his wife, Margaret:  "I will never do it."  Ten days later, Houston received a final offer to take the oath.  He declined.  Fed up, the legislature unceremoniously fired him...."

This from an article "Internal Commerce of the West:  Effects of Secession", New York Times, March 1, 1861:

"A great deal of the South had but poor crops [last year].  Of course, secession makes the matter worse.  There is, therefore, a larger than usual demand, in the Northwest, for bread and meat in the South.   Corn, and of course bread stuffs, is cheap at Cincinnati and Chicago.  As a consequence, meats from Cincinnati and grain from Chicago are pouring through every channel to the markets of the Atlantic, whence they reach the mouths of the consumers.  Secession diminishes the trade of the South -- commerce at Charleston, Savannah, and New-Orleans, where martial bands are threatening war, harbors are made difficult.  Commerce now passes through the Ohio Valley rather than the Deep South."

General Markets in New York City, March 1, 1861:

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch, March 1, 1861:  Commercial Markets
The going prices for all sorts of goods, including grains, meats, freights, and money matters.  Check out these other items:  apples, bacon, bags, beans, beeswax. brooms, butter, candles, cement, coal, coffee, cotton, yarn, dried fruit, feathers, fertilizers, fish, flour, oranges, raisins, prunes, ginseng, gunpowder, hay, hides, iron, nails, lard, lead, leather, lime, liquor, lumber, molasses, oats, onions, potatoes, rice, salt, seneca root, shot, sugar, tobacco, whiskey, wheat, wines, wood, and wool.