It appears that the fighting near Gettysburg began on
Wednesday, July 1st, continued until Sunday, the 5th, and perhaps longer. Up to
Friday the Northern papers claim the advantage.
This morning at 1 P.M. [sic] another dispatch was received
from the same (unofficial) source, stating that on Sunday the enemy made a stand,
and A. P. Hill's corps fell back, followed by the enemy, when Longstreet's and
Ewell's corps closed in their rear and captured 40,000 prisoners — who are now
guarded by Pickett's division. It states that the prisoners refused to be
paroled. This might possibly be true.
This account is credited. Col. Custis Lee, from the
President's office, was in my office at half-past two P.M. to-day, and said
nothing had been received from his father yet — but he did not deny that such
accounts might be substantially true.
The President still keeps his eye on Gen. Beauregard. A paper
from the general to Gen. Cooper, and, of course, referred to the President, in
relation to the means of defense in his department, and a call for more guns,
was sent back to-day, indorsed by the President, that by an examination of the
report of Gen. Huger, he thought some discrepancies would appear in the
statements of Gen. [Beauregard]. Thus, it would seem, from a repetition of similar
[imputations], the President has strong doubts of Gen. [Beauregard's] accuracy of
statements. He is quick to detect discrepancies.
Gen. D. H. Hill sends in a characteristic letter. He says
the rivers are all swollen, and he can make no movement to-day in pursuit of Dix's
army of the Pamunky — or rather "the monkey amy." He says that the
Brooke Pike outer defenses are so defective in design, that a force there could
be driven off in five minutes by the enemy's sharpshooters. He wants them
amended, and a certain grove cut down — and recommends that engineers be put to
work, with orders to leave their "kid gloves behind." He thinks more is to be apprehended from an
attack on Petersburg than Richmond; and requests that Gen. Wise be ordered to
march thither from Chaffin's Bluff, on the first alarm. He had not heard of the
reported victory of Lee.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at
the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 371-2
No comments:
Post a Comment