[4V50 Gary]

Biofuels drive up corn prices today, right? Well, something similar happened during the Civil War. Roswell Guards Capt. Tom Edward King was wounded in the ankle while teaching his Yankee counterparts the Bull Run Quick Step at Bull Run. He was hospitalized at Richmond and then returned to Roswell, Georgia to recuperate. Never one to be idle, he began writing Jeff Davis. Apparently some Confederates were more interested in their own economic welfare than that of the Confederacy and it infuriated Capt. Roswell. You see, some folks were disposed towards distilling the corn rather than consuming it as food. Picking up his pen, he wrote that the "gates of hell" were driving up the price of corn and causing a severe shortage. "Unless a stop is put to this criminal waste of the staff of life, it will soon be out of the power of the families of our volunteers to get any and there will be suffering." Capt. Roswell was not alone in his indignation and Georgia Gov. Joseph Brown was also concerned. Before Davis acted, Brown issued a proclamation on Feb. 28, 1862 prohibiting the distillation of spirits and to conserve corn for consumption.