And really, the investment of the town was so closely maintained, that a surrender of the besieged army, because of starvation before relief could be had from any quarter, seemed within the range of probabilities. The amount of its supplies when the siege began was very limited. Cattle and hogs were at once slaughtered and salted down, but there were in the commissary department only one or two days’ rations for the whole army. Only quarter rations were at first issued. Within a few days these were wholly stopped, as all that could be served were needed by the hospitals, and no sugar or coffee could be had. Possession was taken of the mills for Government use. Citizens were living upon plain food in reduced quantities, but these were necessarily drawn upon to meet the army’s necessities. The larders of people who sympathized with the Confederacy had especially to suffer. In some cases Union families befriended their neighbors, who in the exigency would otherwise have been put to great straits. A Union man might be troubled by the thought that he was giving “aid and comfort to the enemy,” by keeping under his bedstead a sack of flour for a Secessionist who had a wife and five children to feed (of which there was an instance), but his troubled mind would easily find refuge in the thought that he was obeying the teachings of humanity. A spirit of fear was widely diffused, under the influence of which money as well as provisions, were temporarily transferred for safety from one person to another. The fright was greatest in respect to cash, at the beginning of the siege, when not only small sums thus changed hands, but a place of secure deposit for large ones was eagerly sought. A citizen was surprised by a night visit, the object of which was to leave with him a hundred thousand dollars, belonging to a stranger who the next morning had sufficient nerve to decamp to Kentucky, carrying the money with him.