Mrs. Brownlow was a native Tennesseean, and Mrs. Maynard, born in Massachusetts, had resided in the town for some twenty years. In the pending conflict their sympathies were naturally and properly with their husbands, but they had stood entirely aloof from active politics, and no charge of misdemeanor in word or deed was made against them. Mrs. Maynard, a lady of superior culture and fine sensibilities, was sickened in the enforced departure from her home by its excitement and worry, and a hemorrhage of her lungs ensued: but her spirit was bravely equal to the emergency, and when the appointed hour came she was ready for the journey under military escort. As the war advanced, shops and mercantile houses in some instances were closed, but as a rule, they kept open doors with diminished stocks. A few new shops were established and traders found employment not unprofitable. Prices gradually increased until they became very high. Many articles in frequent or habitual use by the people could not be had at any price, or if at all, only in the smallest quantities. Coffee, which formerly could be bought at from 14 to 16 cents a pound, became scarce soon after hostilities began, and before long sold at one dollar a pound. Salt, almost a necessary of life, could only be obtained with difficulty, and its price of 2½ and 3 cents a pound, rose to 30 cents and more. Brown sugar advanced from 12½ cents to 75 cents a pound. Common calicoes, before sold at 12½ cents a yard, increased eight fold in price by retail. Men’s ordinary apparel shared in the upward movement of values, especially shoes of all kinds, which sold by and by, for from ten to twenty dollars a pair, and boots, which went up to twenty dollars and more. The great increase in prices of dry goods and groceries induced a corresponding advance by producers in those of grain, meat, poultry, vegetables and fruits. Provision for their own maintenance demanded of the farming class that what they had to sell should be valued higher. At the beginning of the troubles gold and silver passed out of general circulation. Next the notes of the various banks chartered by the State gradually disappeared. Numbers of people hoarded these notes as a provision for possible exigencies, and they were valued in exchange at twenty-five per cent. more than Confederate notes. The banks themselves were ready enough to pay out the latter notes to customers, and by doing this withdrew much of their own paper from circulation. Gold was sold for Confederate notes at a premium of one hundred per cent. or more.