CONFEDERATE MILITARY HISTORY.
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during the spring planting season and to it may be attributed the improved food supply for that year.
The accumulation of government cotton had in the beginning of 1863 amounted to about a half a million bales, stored generally in sheds at the distance of five or more miles from any railroad, and the principal agent of the government appointed to purchase cotton issued a circular July 25, 1863, in which he stated the policy of the government to be the same as to private or public cotton, viz.: "Apply to it the torch whenever in imminent and manifest danger of falling into the hands of the enemy, but only in such cases." The advice was most patriotically followed in many cases by the owners themselves.
