South Side Rail Road, Coffee Theft, 1864 -

Document measures 5 1/2" x 4 3/4". As the needs for the Confederacy grew more desperate, the demands placed on the South Side Rail Road had increased demands placed upon them by Lee's Army. While it was still privately owned business, its infrastructure was in decline as rails were often in disrepair, oversized locomotives used by the Confederacy being a factor while the line established in 1846 attempted to survive in spite of the demands of war. This document is from the Railroad itself issued on September 29 1864 (just two days before Lee's Army took over operations on October 1, 1864. In this case their agent T.B. Rice is writing A. Baldwin, a director about 27 pounds of missing coffee which had left Richmond at 168 pounds but when the train arrived at Farmville, Virginia, it weight only 141 pounds. Such losses were endemic since the price of coffee, like that of sugar and even salt had risen nearly 20 times since early 1864. In one sense, the price of coffee was akin to that of gold. The verso of the document is addressed to T.B. Rice, Agent of the S.S.R.R. initialed by J [unidentified].