Troops are coming in from all directions, cavalry and
infantry; but I learn that none scarcely are accepted by the State. This is
great political economy, with a vengeance! How is Gov. Letcher to be ready to
fight in a few days? Oh, perhaps he thinks the army will spontaneously spring
into existence, march without transportation, and fight without rations or pay!
But the Convention has passed an act authorizing the enlistment of a regular
army of 12,000 men. If I am not mistaken, Virginia will have to put in the
field ten times that number, and the confederacy will have to maintain 500,000
in Virginia, or lose the border States. And if the border States be subjugated,
Mr. Seward probably would grant a respite to the rest for a season.
But by the terms of the (Tyler and Stephens) treaty, the
Confederate States will reimburse Virginia for all her expenses; and therefore
I see no good reason why this State, of all others, being the most exposed,
should not muster into service every well-armed company that presents itself.
There are arms enough for 25,000 men now, and that number, if it be too late to
take Washington, might at all events hold this side of the Potomac, and keep
the Yankees off the soil of Virginia.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 30
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