The Federal papers have heard of the failure to take
Charleston, and the sinking of the Keokuk; and yet they strive to mollify the
disaster, and represent that but little damage was sustained by the rest of the
fleet. Those that escaped, they say, have proved themselves invulnerable. The
Keokuk had ninety shots on the water line. No wonder it sunk!
Gen. Longstreet has invested Suffolk, this side of Norfolk,
after destroying one gun-boat and crippling another in the Nansemond River.
Unless the enemy get reinforcements, the garrison at Suffolk may be forced to
surrender. Perhaps our general may storm their works!
I learn, to-day, that the remaining eye of the President is
failing. Total blindness would incapacitate him for the executive office. A fearful
thing to contemplate!
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 293
No comments:
Post a Comment