In the absence of the Secretary, I arranged the furniture as
well as I could, and took possession of the five offices I had selected. But no
business, of course, could be done before his arrival. Yet an immense mass of business
was accumulating — letters by the hundreds were demanding attention.
And I soon found, as the other Secretaries came in, that
some dissatisfaction was likely to grow out of the appropriation by the
Secretary of War of the best offices. Mr. Toombs said the “war office” might do
in any ordinary building; but that the Treasury should appropriately occupy the
custom-house, which was fireproof. For his own department, he said he should be
satisfied with a room or two anywhere. But my arrangement was not countermanded
by the President, to whom I referred all objectors. His decision was to be
final — and he did not decide against it. I had given him excellent quarters;
and I knew he was in the habit of having frequent interviews both with the
Secretary of War and the Adjutant-General, and this would be inconvenient if
they were in different buildings.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 46-7
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