[Paleo Conservative]

During the American Civil War Ohio cotton traders were going down river and buying Confederate cotton in exchange for gold. Grant and Sherman tried to stop it but were over ridden by the White House.

Perhaps the Union needed the cotton for its war effort. I can imagine that wool underwear would be awfully uncomfortable for soldiers in the field.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

It was being sold over seas. The cotton seized by General Sherman as a result of his march to the sea was stamped by him “Property of The United States Treasury.” Those marks were erased and the name of a large cotton brokerage house in New York substituted. Sherman protested by Stanton over rode the protest. That is one reason why Sherman publicly refused to shake Stanton’s hand.