other was done by the ladies themselves.  Too much praise cannot be given to Colonel McMaster for his indefatigable exertions, his tireless rounds of duty, to make the soldiers comfortable.  The ladies were never too tired, night nor day, to go to the aid of the hungry and broken down soldiers.  Hundreds and thousands were fed and lodged without money and without price.  Car loads of the little comforts and necessities of life were shared out to the passing soldiers whenever their wants required it.  Never a day or night passed without soldiers being entertained or clothing distributed.  One night only was as long as a soldier was allowed to enjoy their hospitality, unless in cases of emergency.  The officers of the army, whenever able, were required to pay a nominal sum for lodging.  Better beds and conveniences were furnished them, but if they were willing to take private’s “fare,” they paid private’s “fee,” which was gratuitous.  As a general rule, however, the officers kept apart from the men, for the officer who pushed himself in the private’s quarters was looked upon as penurious and mean.  It was only in times of the greatest necessity that a Southern officer wished to appear thus.  If the Southern soldier was poor, he was always proud.  This hotel was called the “South Carolina Soldiers’ Home,” and most of the other States inside the lines had similar institutions.  In every home throughout the whole South could be heard the old “hand spinning wheel” humming away until far in the night, as the dusky damsel danced backwards and forwards, keeping step to the music of her own voice and the hum of the wheel.  The old women sat in the corners and carded away with the hand-card, making great heaps of rolls, to be laid carefully and evenly upon the floor or the wheel.  Great chunks of pine, called “lite’ood,” were regularly thrown into the great fire place until the whole scene was lit up as by an incandescent lamp.  What happiness, what bliss, and how light the toil, when it was known that the goods woven were to warm and comfort young “massa” in the army.  The ladies of the “big house” were not idle while these scenes of activity were going on at the “quarter.”  Broaches were reeled into “hanks” of “six cuts” each, to be “sized,” “warped,” and made ready for the loom.  Then the little “treadle wheel” that turned with a pedal made baskets of spools for the “filling.”  By an ingenious method, known only to the regularly initiated Southern housewife, the thread was put upon the loom, and then the music of the weaver’s beam went merrily along with its monotonous “bang,” “bang,” as yard after yard of beautiful jeans, linsey, or homespuns of every kind were turned out to clothe the soldier boys, whose government was without the means or opportunity to furnish them.  Does it look possible at this late day that almost the entire Southern Army was clothed by cloth carded, spun, and woven by hand, and mostly by the white ladies of the South?