"No stoves are used on a Man-of-War except that for cooking; there is a stove on this ship, however, which was used before we bought her; it has not yet been put up, and I fear the captain will not allow it to be done. Think of four hours on a wet deck, the wind strong and cutting, after which no warm place to go to; you enter your quarters, and there find it also cold and desolate"

Thornton Chew, C.S.N., 18 May, 1865

"Congress has it is said matured the tax bill & acted on it but it is not yet announced. Every one prays that it may be one adequate to sustain the war and remedy the deplorable state of the currency. Gold is now nearly five to one-provisions in proportion. Flour is $30 a barrel here & twice and three times that price elsewhere. The difficulties of transportation add to the scarcity. We now pay $3 per Lb for butter $2 for eggs. A turkey costs $15 Beef is $1.50 per lb. Common domestic is $2 a yard. Calicos are unobtainable. Of course in this state of things many fortunes will be made. It is currently believed that the enterprizing firm of John Frazer & Co at Charleston have already made nine millions of dollars by importations. The manufacturing & buisness firm of Crenshaw's (large blockade-running buisness) here are making out of woolen factories & flour contracts many hundreds of thousands monthly. But we salaried officers who do the work of the war are pinched. My pay will actually not purchase 1000 dollars worth in ordinary times."
Col. Josiah Gorgas, March 25, 1863

"It has rained not less that fifty days almost consecutively, probably 45 days out of the fifty. The wheat which had been cut has sprouted in the shock. The loss of the crop will be a most serious embarrasment in feeding the army, especially if as threatened the corn crop should also be injured."
Col. Josiah Gorgas, July 29, 1863