L. JOHNSON

This quotation is historically very interesting. Southern educational materials were extremely scarce with paper one of the commodities most in short supply as the only book paper in the South came from England and had to be smuggled through the Union blockade. Yet the priority was so high that paper was made available in the midst of the Civil War. Confederate civilian morale was a very serious problem while at the same time large numbers of Southern civilians and military were delusional about the Confederate fighting capability. Central to that theme was the myth that the Southern soldier, fighting for such a righteous cause, was several times more effective than his Yankee counterpart. Therefore, the fact that the South was outmanned, out gunned, and out supplied, did not imply a Union victory. So teaching this to the young Southern children who would spread it to the adults on the home front, was a conscious Confederate propaganda effort at this time. Also, the use of these kinds of death and killing arithmetic problems for young children, while considered patriotic in the South was thought to be gross, crude, uncivilized and unchristian by most in the North. The implied 90 to 1 superiority ratio was laughed at in the North, but actually believed by a substantial number of Southerners.

This quotation is historically very interesting. Southern educational materials were extremely scarce with paper one of the commodities most in short supply as the only book paper in the South came from England and had to be smuggled through the Union blockade. Yet the priority was so high that paper was made available in the midst of the Civil War. Confederate civilian morale was a very serious problem while at the same time large numbers of Southern civilians and military were delusional about the Confederate fighting capability. Central to that theme was the myth that the Southern soldier, fighting for such a righteous cause, was several times more effective than his Yankee counterpart. Therefore, the fact that the South was outmanned, out gunned, and out supplied, did not imply a Union victory. So teaching this to the young Southern children who would spread it to the adults on the home front, was a conscious Confederate propaganda effort at this time. Also, the use of these kinds of death and killing arithmetic problems for young children, while considered patriotic in the South was thought to be gross, crude, uncivilized and unchristian by most in the North. The implied 90 to 1 superiority ratio was laughed at in the North, but actually believed by a substantial number of Southerners.