After the Civil War
"By the effects of the War I am almost totally ruined. I had previously a revenue of from 12 to 20,000 per annum from two plantations and money loaned at interest. I am reduced to a mere pittance and have not been able to collect enough from money loaned to buy me a Suit of Clothes and have as yet no other revenue."
Sometime
in the early hours of December 29, 1863, Mary Moore died peacefully in
her sleep. she was buried in her garden, "as the graveyards were
all open the fencing having been torn down by the Yankees." (Hannah
J. Conrad to John Moore, December 4, 1864) The war was over for Mary C.
Moore, but her refusal to abandon her home probably saved it from confiscation
and greater damage. The Federal troops moved on just a few weeks later.
In a letter written on April 5, 1866, John Moore recalled the death of his wife, whose "loss to me is irreparable." Moore also wrote of the struggles to adjust to changes brought about by the recent war, the destruction wrought by both armies scavenging off the land and difficulties in converting from slave labor to paid labor for both planters and freedmen. In this same letter, he wrote that he was living with his "Step Son William F. Weeks & family" at the "former residence of my wife." (John Moore to Mrs. Joseph R. Snyder, April 5, 1866) John Moore died attThe Shadows a year later, on June 17, 1867, at the age of 78 and is buried beside his wife, Mary.
While the Shadows itself suffered little damage from the war, the same could not be said for the sugar industry. The 1861-62 crop was the largest to date with a total of 459,410 hogsheads produced. Four years and one war later, the 1864-65 crop produced only 18,000 hogsheads. Destroyed mills, a severe deficit of seed cane, natural disasters, and problems establishing a working relationship with a newly freed labor force proved to be even greater obstacles than those faced by David Weeks in the early 1800s. It would take years of hard work to rebuild a profitable sugar industry.
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