Confederate Nationalism in the Lone Star State." Southwestern Historical Quarterly 114.1 (2010): 21-36. Houston was an important regional center during the Confederacy. The town served as a military logistics center, the Quartermaster Depot for Texas, and the headquarters of a wartime administrative district which included Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. An influx of refugees from Louisiana and Galveston nearly doubled Houston's wartime population compared to 1860. Since the town suffered no direct attacks, it was prosperous compared to many other communities in the South. Though some key merchants like William Marsh Rice left at the start of the war, businessmen from New Orleans and Galveston replaced them. Blockade runners sometimes used Houston as a port, and on occasion the Main Street wharf received foreign cargo. Despite disruptions to supply from the Union blockades, advertisements indicate at least occasional availability of staples, such as sugar, coffee, and soap; clothing, including pants, shirts, and footwear; and building supplies, like brick, and even milled pine. However, the supply of goods was not consistent, and there were periodic shortages of some staples, causing hyperflation and the need to find substitute goods, such as flavoring hot drinks with okra seeds in place of coffee. Specie was in short supply throughout the war. Housing scarcity caused rents to rise, but wages increased at the same time. Post-Civil War, 1866–1900 Reconstruction The end of the Civil War and news of emancipation spurred an influx of former slaves from the countryside into Houston. The town's incumbent black residents organized groups to help these newcomers obtain housing and employment. In the short term, however, many of these new citizens resided in abandoned buildings and tent communities. Houston added the Fifth Ward in 1866, and the Sixth Ward in 1877. Each ward was represented by two aldermen, though by 1870, local representation was unequal based on population of the respective wards. The Fourth Ward counted 3,055 residents, contrasted with the First Ward with only 738 residents. The city did not adjust the ward boundaries to compensate for these unequal settlement patterns. In 1869, the Ship Channel Company was formed to deepen Buffalo Bayou and improve Houston as a shipping port. Despite the postwar social unrest, migrants flocked to Texas for new opportunities. Texas businessmen joined to expand the railroad network, which contributed to Houston's primacy in the state and the development of Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio and El Paso.