Summary:
During the Civil War, the Confederate government had to resort to price fixing and
confiscation to ease the army's increasingly large supply problem. In this November, 1862,
letter, General Robert E. Lee writes Secretary of War Randolph concerning procurement of wheat
in the Shenandoah Valley. He discusses milling, price fixing, and the reportedly higher prices
charged at Staunton.
Hon. GEORGE W. RANDOLPH,
Secretary of War, Richmond, Va.:
November 7, 1862.
SIR:
In answer to your dispatch of the 6th instant, in reference to the seizure of flour in Rockingham County, I think there must be some misapprehension on the part of the Hon. John B. Baldwin as to the facts. I think it, therefore, proper to report to the Department that upon the arrival of the army in the Shenandoah Valley, below Winchester, the mills in that section of the country that had previously been in a great measure idle, were set to work to supply it with flour. After consultation with millers and farmers, the chief commissary placed the price of wheat at $1.50 per bushel, making that of flour $8 per barrel. This, I believe, gave entire satisfaction at the time, and was considered a fair price, and furnished the only market to the farmers for the sale of their wheat, as it was impossible for them to convey it out of the valley, for want of teams and laborers that had been by the enemy. The mills above Winchester were set to work upon the same terms, and supplies of flour were accumulated in the vicinity of Woodstock and Harrisonburg in the event of operations higher up the valley. You must understand that the above price was paid at the mills or points where the flour was received, without any expense to the proprietors, except in the cases where bags or barrels were furnished by the Government, when 40 cents per barrel was deducted. No flour necessary for private consumption was taken, and, in many cases, when convenient, wheat was hauled to the mills by the wagons of the army, and in some instances was thrashed from the straw. I heard of no dissatisfaction until recently, when a higher price was paid for flour at Staunton by some of the agents of the Commissary Department not attached to this army. Maj. A. H. Johnston, commissary of subsistence, was sent to Harrisonburg to secure the flour in that vicinity for the army. Maj. Johnston has dealt with only ten mills in Rockingham, being about two-thirds of the number of mills in that county. In only one case that has been reported to me has he been obliged to resort to compulsion, and that was at the mill of Mr. Josiah Rollins, on North River, near Mount Crawford, where he placed a guard upon receiving information that speculators were removing the flour from the mill at from $10 to $12 per barrel, the object of the guard being to prevent the flour being carried beyond the reach of the Commissary Department. Harrisborough is 20 miles below Staunton, to which point the flour will have to be transported in wagons for shipment by railroad. If you prefer to supply the army with flour from Richmond, I will direct the chief commissary of the army to cease purchasing it, or to pay for it whatever price you may designate. The army must be subsisted, and if millers or owners will not sell their flour at a fixed rate, we are obliged to take it. The question will be whether they will take a fair price for their flour, or leave it to be seized by the enemy after the army is withdrawn.
R. E. LEE,
Gen.
Bibliographic Information : Letter Reproduced from The War of The Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 1, Volume 19, Serial No. 28, Pages 699-700, Broadfoot Publishing Company, Wilmington, NC, 1997.
