Saw Col. Pendleton to-day, but it was not the first time. I
have seen him in the pulpit, and heard him preach good sermons. He is an
Episcopal minister. He it was that plowed such destruction through the ranks of
the invaders at Manassas. At first the battery did no execution; perceiving
this, he sighted the guns himself and fixed the range. Then exclaiming, “Fire,
boys! and may God have mercy on their guilty souls!” he beheld the lanes made
through the regiments of the enemy. Since then he has been made a colonel, and
will some day be a general; for he was a fellow-cadet at West Point with the
President and Bishop Polk.
A tremendous excitement! The New York Herald has been
received, containing a pretty accurate list of our military forces in the
different camps of the Confederate States, with names and grades of the general
officers. The Secretary told me that if he had required such a list, a more
correct one could not have been furnished him. Who is the traitor? Is he in the
Adjutant-General's office? Many suppose so; and some accuse Gen. Cooper, simply
because he is a Northern man by birth. But the same information might be
supplied by the Quartermaster's or Commissary-General's office; and perhaps by
the Ordnance Bureau; for all these must necessarily be in communication with
the different organizations in the field. Congress was about to order an
investigation; but it is understood the department suggested that the matter
could be best searched into by the Executive. For my part, I have no doubt
there are many Federal spies in the departments. Too many clerks were imported
from Washington. And yet I doubt if any one in a subordinate position, without
assistance from higher authority, could have prepared the list published in the
Herald
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 70-1
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