Such astounding events have occurred since the 8th instant,
such an excitement has prevailed, and so incessant have been my duties, that I
have not kept a regular journal. I give a running account of them.
Roanoke has fallen before superior numbers, although we had
15,000 idle troops at Norfolk within hearing of the battle. The government
would not interfere, and Gen. Huger refused to allow the use of a few thousand of
his troops.
But Gen. Wise is safe; Providence willed that he should
escape the “man-trap.” When the enemy were about to open fire on his
headquarters at Nag's Head, knowing him to be prostrated with illness (for the
island had then been surrendered after a heroic. defense), Lieutenants Bagly
and Wise bore the general away in a blanket to a distance of ten or fifteen
miles. The Yankees would have gladly exchanged all their prisoners for Gen.
Wise, who is ever a terror to the North.
Capt. O. Jennings Wise fell, while gallantly cheering his
men, in the heat of the battle. A thousand of the enemy fell before a few
hundred of our brave soldiers. We lost some 2500 men, for there was no
alternative but to surrender.
Capt. Wise told the Yankee officers, who persisted in
forcing themselves in his presence during his dying moments, that the South
could never be subjugated. They might exterminate us, but every man, woman, and
child would prefer death to abject subjugation. And he died with a sweet smile
on his lip, eliciting the profound respect of his most embittered enemies.
The enemy paroled our men taken on the island; and we
recovered the remains of the heroic Capt. Wise. His funeral here was most
impressive, and saddened the countenances of thousands who witnessed the
pageant. None of the members of the government were present; but the ladies
threw flowers and evergreens upon his bier. He is dead — but history will do
him justice; and his example will inspire others with the spirit of true
heroism.
And President Tyler is no more on earth. He died after a very
brief illness. There was a grand funeral, Mr. Hunter and others delivering
orations. They came to me, supposing I had written one of the several
biographies of the deceased which have appeared during the last twenty years.
But I had written none — and none published were worthy of the subject. I could
only refer them to the bound volumes of the Madisonian in the State library for
his messages and other State papers. The originals are among my papers in the
hands of the enemy. His history is yet to be written — and it will be read
centuries hence.
Fort Henry has fallen. Would that were all! The catalogue of
disasters I feared and foretold, under the policy adopted by the War
Department, may be a long and a terrible one.
The mission of the spies to East Tennessee is now apparent.
Three of the enemy's gun-boats have ascended the Tennessee rivet to the very
head of navigation, while the women and children on its banks could do nothing
more than gaze in mute despair. No batteries, no men were there. The absence of
these is what the traitors, running from here to Washington, have been
reporting to the enemy. Their boats would no more have ventured up that river
without the previous exploration of spies, than Mr. Lincoln would dare to
penetrate a cavern without torch-bearers, in which the rattle of venomous
snakes could be heard. They have ascended to Florence, and may get footing in
Alabama and Mississippi!
And Fort Donelson has been attacked by an immensely superior
force. We have 15,000 men there to resist, perhaps, 75,000! Was ever such management
known before? Who is responsible for it? If Donelson falls, what becomes of the
ten or twelve thousand men at Bowling Green?
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 109-10
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