We have bad news from the West. The enemy (cavalry, I
suppose) have penetrated Mississippi some 200 miles, down to the railroad
between Vicksburg and Meridian. This if in the rear and east of Vicksburg, and
intercepts supplies They destroyed two trains. This dispatch was sent to the
Secretary of War by the President without remark. The Enquirer this
morning contained a paragraph stating that Gen. Pemberton was exchanging
civilities with Gen. Sherman, and had sent him a beautiful bouquet! Did he have
any conception of the surprise the enemy was executing at the moment? Well,
Mississippi is the President's State, and if he is satisfied with Northern
generals to defend it, he is as likely to be benefited as any one else.
Gen. Beauregard is urging the government to send more heavy
guns to Savannah.
I saw an officer to-day just from Charleston. He says none of
the enemy's vessels came nearer than 900 yards of our batteries, and that the
Northern statements about the monitors becoming entangled with obstructions are
utterly false, for there were no obstructions in the water to impede them. But
he says one of the monitors was directly over a torpedo, containing 4000 pounds
of powder, which we essayed in vain to ignite.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 298-9
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