While I oft disagree with 67th on a lot of things, he is correct regarding the South's food production ability. Rioting occurred not because there was not enough food produced but because it wasn't getting to the cities where it was needed.
There are numerous reasons for this...
1. Poor transportation - most Southern railways ran north-south through the coastal tidewaters to facilitate the shipping of cash crops to the ports. They did not run inland and no major Southern city, besides Baltimore and New Orleans, were ever really rail or transportation hubs. This made it very difficult to get the food that was grown to the proper markets as the war took its toll.
2. Hoarding - many people and even some state governments refused to export large amounts of excess food, thus leaving noon-food producing regions to suffer.
3. Union Occupation - as Union forces occupied areas of the Confederacy they denied the resources within to other unoccupied portions.
4. Hyperinflation - later in the war the Confederate dollar became nearly worthless and the Confederacy lacked access to hard currency like gold and silver. This made it extremely difficult to pay for what little food did make it to the cities.
But despite this as Alan T. Nolan asserts and cites several other historians as well, "No Confederate army lost a major engagement because of lack of arms, munitions or other essential supplies." (The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, page 23.)
Benjamin
P.S. I'll refrain from reigniting the iron mill vs. steel mill debate and just point interested parties to any number of web pages regarding the Bessemer process or William Kelly. First Bessemer Mill in US - Detroit 1855. First Bessemer/Kelly Process mill in Pennsylvania - 1857 (Cambria Iron Mill in Johnstown).
There are numerous reasons for this...
1. Poor transportation - most Southern railways ran north-south through the coastal tidewaters to facilitate the shipping of cash crops to the ports. They did not run inland and no major Southern city, besides Baltimore and New Orleans, were ever really rail or transportation hubs. This made it very difficult to get the food that was grown to the proper markets as the war took its toll.
2. Hoarding - many people and even some state governments refused to export large amounts of excess food, thus leaving noon-food producing regions to suffer.
3. Union Occupation - as Union forces occupied areas of the Confederacy they denied the resources within to other unoccupied portions.
4. Hyperinflation - later in the war the Confederate dollar became nearly worthless and the Confederacy lacked access to hard currency like gold and silver. This made it extremely difficult to pay for what little food did make it to the cities.
But despite this as Alan T. Nolan asserts and cites several other historians as well, "No Confederate army lost a major engagement because of lack of arms, munitions or other essential supplies." (The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, page 23.)
Benjamin
P.S. I'll refrain from reigniting the iron mill vs. steel mill debate and just point interested parties to any number of web pages regarding the Bessemer process or William Kelly. First Bessemer Mill in US - Detroit 1855. First Bessemer/Kelly Process mill in Pennsylvania - 1857 (Cambria Iron Mill in Johnstown).