CHAPTER XXX.

ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR SHORTER.

GOVERNOR JOHN G. SHORTER.

GOVERNOR SHORTER was born in Georgia in 1818. He came to Alabama in 1836, and made Eufaula his home. He was a lawyer, and had served the State in both houses of the legislature, on the bench of the circuit court, and in the Confederate Provisional Congress. He was a faithful public servant, but he held. office in troublous times, when the people were hard to please. In consequence, he soon found his popularity declining.

Alabama was making a great effort to help in the common cause. A large appropriation had been made at the outset to help set the Confederate government on its feet; bonds and notes continued to be issued, and this meant, of course, that the State was running deeper and deeper in debt. So it was not long before the notes of the State, like those of the Confederate Government at Richmond, began to fall very heavily in value; the people, who were burdened with a tax in kind to support the armies in the field, and other grievous taxes, began now to be burdened once again with bad money, which is doubtless the worst of all the burdens that a free government ever imposes. It must be remembered, too, that the younger and stronger of the white men were for the most part serving in the war, and this made it all the harder for

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those who were left at home. The sufferings of the great war were not confined to those who could fight.

As to Alabama's share in the fighting, Governor Moore reported, early in October, 1861, that there were 27,000 Alabamians in the field, organized into twenty-three regiments and numerous lesser formations. A year later, Governor Shorter reported the number swelled to more than 60,000; yet in 1860 the entire white population, of all ages and both sexes, was but 526,271. It was growing clear that practically the whole of the able-bodied white population must go, leaving only the slaves and the wounded or otherwise disabled white men at home to till the soil and protect the women and children. Before long, refugees from other States, where the fighting was going on, fled to Alabama, because of its situation at the heart of the Confederacy, to share and increase the privations of those who were already there. The central position of the State made it also good ground for arsenals and other establishments that would be endangered by the approach of hostile forces, and Selma was accordingly the seat of the largest arsenal in the Confederacy. Towards the end of the war a large military prison was established at Cahaba. The University, having adopted the military system in 1860, became a valuable training school for soldiers.

The achievements of Alabama's troops in the war belong properly to the history of the whole country. Scattered throughout the Confederate armies, they bore their share of the fighting in all the important battles. Their brightest laurels were won on fields remote from their own homes. At the beginning, many were sent to man the forts around Mobile and Pensacola; but thousands were soon marching away to the borderland of Kentucky and Virginia. Alabama troops felt the first blow of the Federals at Bull Run, and several Alabama regiments won in that battle a reputation for steady courage which they kept undiminished to the end.

By the close of the first year of the war, names of Alabama

men had begun to shine very brightly in the lists of valorous Confederates. James Longstreet, accredited to Alabama, was taking his place with Lee and Jackson. General Leroy Pope Walker had resigned his position as Secretary of War, and now commanded a brigade in the Army, and the Ordnance Department at Richmond was under General Josiah Gorgas, an Alabama officer. General Jones M. Withers was commanding the defences of Mobile. Robert E. Rodes, of Tuscaloosa, was beginning in the earlier Virginia campaigns the career that led to a major-general's commission; while John B. Gordon, who had gone to the front at the head of the "Raccoon Roughs," of Jackson County, was laying the foundations of the fame which Georgia has taken for her own. Scores of others were winning distinction, while many -it is dreadful to think how many-were falling in those early battles and leaving no record of their devotion, albeit we may not doubt they met their deaths as bravely as any of those whose valor chanced to be observed.

During this first year of the war Alabama was not the scene of any engagements; the peace that had reigned within her limits since the days of Weatherford and Dale was still unbroken. Early in 1862, however, there was an advance of the Federals into Tennessee, which resulted in the battle of Shiloh, in which many Alabama soldiers were engaged. The Confederates retreated into Mississippi, and the beautiful Tennessee Valley was overrun by Federal troops. The sufferings of its people were even greater than those which ordinarily result from a military occupation. The Federal general in command himself reported that many outrages and much plundering had been committed by vagabonds connected with the army, and one of his brigade commanders was dismissed from the service for giving over Athens to "indiscriminate sack." The Federals were driven back by an advance of the Confederate Army under General Braxton Bragg into Tennessee and Kentucky. With Bragg were

many Alabama troops, and at the battle of Perryville, which occurred during this campaign, a brigade composed mainly of Alabamians was commanded by Brigadier-General Sterling A. M. Wood, of Alabama, who was severely wounded. General Bragg's movement was not, on the whole, successful, and one of the consequences was the reoccupation of northern Alabama by Federal troops. Brigadier-General Philip Dale Roddey, with an inadequate force of Confederates, made some headway against the invaders.

Meantime, in Virginia and Maryland, the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under General Lee had been winning some famous victories, first beating back McClellan in the Seven Days' battles around Richmond, then Pope in the second battle of Manassas, and then advancing into Maryland to fight the indecisive battle of Sharpsburg; afterwards retiring into Virginia, and at Fredericksburg repulsing with fearful slaughter a third advance of the Union army under Burnside. In these operations Evander M. Law, of Alabama, won his commission as brigadier-general, and the list of distinguished Alabama officers was lengthened out with other honorable names. Among these one is sure to be remembered just as the great commander wrote it down in his report of the battle of Fredericksburg-" the gallant Pelham "-the only name below the rank of majorgeneral that was mentioned in the report. He who won that title soon crowned his devotion with a soldier's death, but the sweet and winning figure of the "boy artilleryman" will keep its place in our history, like Sir Philip Sidney's in English history, while any remain who love to read of youthful daring.

In the spring of 1863, Alabama was the scene of a brilliant exploit by the Confederate cavalry leader, General N. B. Forrest, in whose command were many Alabama soldiers. After repulsing an advance of General Dodge, who had a force of some 8,000 Federals in Lawrence County, not far