From the Richmond Examiner, 6/17/1864

TOBACCO WAREHOUSES. – When the war broke out it would have imposed upon the Confederate Government the necessity of erecting numerous large prison, store and barrack accommodations, had it not been that most of the towns numbered among their edifices numerous large and commodious tobacco warehouses and factories, which by the war and the consequent non production of the leaf were soon to be rendered useless to their owners. The Government took possession of these buildings as they were needed from time to time, and very little alteration was required to convert them into hospitals, prison posts, storehouse for army supplies, and guard barracks. Seabrook’s, the far-famed Libby, and the not less dreaded Castle Thunder, were all busy, bustling tobacco warehouses before the war, with at least a dozen other hospitals and posts of a military character. While the Yankee Government had to build immense hospital and prison quarters at the outset, the Confederate Government found its war institutions all ready and at hand, and all it had to do was to occupy, with a saving of millions to the treasury.

When the storm of war is past the buildings will revert to their uses, none the worse for having aided and abetted in the rebellion and the establishment of Southern Independence.

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