Major Tyler's health has improved, but I do not perceive a resumption
of his old intimate relations with the Secretary. Yet he is doing the heavy
epistolary work, being a lawyer; and the correspondence sometimes embracing diverse
legal points. My intimacy with the colonel continues. It seems he would do
anything in the world for me. He has put Mr. Shepherd to issuing passports to
the camps, etc. — the form being dictated by the Secretary. These are the first
passports issued by the government. I suggested that they should be granted by
and in the name of the Chief of the Bureau of War — and a few were so issued — but
the Secretary arrested the proceeding. The Secretary was right, probably, in
this matter.
The President is appointing generals enough, one would
suppose. I hope we shall have men for them. From five to ten thousand
volunteers are daily offered — but not two thousand are accepted. Some have no
arms; and others propose to serve only for six or twelve months. Infantry will
not fight with hunting rifles or shot-guns; and the department will not accept
mounted men, on account of the expense of transportation, etc. Oh, that I had
power but for a week! There should then be accepted fifty regiments of cavalry.
These are the troops for quick marches, surprises, and captures. And our
people, even down to the little boys, are expert riders. If it were to be a short
war — or if it were to be a war of invasion on our part — it might he good
policy, economically, to discourage cavalry organizations. But we shall want
all our men; and many a man would fight in the saddle who could not or would
not march in the infantry. And mounted men are content to use the
double-barreled shotgun — one barrel for ball, the other for buck-shot and
close quarters.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 59
No comments:
Post a Comment