Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: July 19, 1862

This morning early, while congratulating myself on the evidence of some firmness and independence in the new Secretary, I received the following note:

richmond, July 19th, 1862.

Mr. J. B. Jones.

Sir: — I have just been directed by the Secretary of War that he has turned over the whole business of passports to Gen. Winder, and that applications for passports will not be received at this office at all.

Very respectfully,

A. G. Bledsoe,

Asst. Sec. War.

Of course I ceased operations immediately. So large a concourse of persons now accumulated in the hall, that it was soon necessary to put up a notice that Gen. Winder would grant them passports. But the current set back again. Gen. Winder refused to issue passports to the relatives of the sick and wounded in the camps, well knowing the generals, his superiors in rank, would not recognize his authority. He even came into the department, and tore down the notice with his own hands.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 144-5