Yesterday, most of the delegation in Congress from Kentucky
and Tennessee petitioned the President to order Gen. Breckinridge, at
Knoxville, to march to the relief of Nashville, and expel the enemy, without
waiting for orders from Gen. Bragg, now in Kentucky. The President considers
this an extraordinary request, and will not, I suppose, grant it.
It is said Gen. Lee is advancing against Gen. McClellan at
Martinsburg. If Lee attacks him, and beats him, he will probably be ruined, for
the Potomac will be in his rear.
The enemy's paper, printed at Nashville, thinks Bragg has
taken Louisville. I hope so. I think we shall get Nashville soon.
Gen. Butler, the Yankee commander in New Orleans, has issued
an order to all the inhabitants of that city, sympathizing with the Southern
Confederacy, to present themselves immediately, and take the oath of allegiance,
when they will be recommended for pardon. If they do not comply with the
order, they will be arrested by his police, cast into prison, and their
property confiscated. These are the orders which rally our men and make them
fight like heroes. How many Yankees will bleed and die in consequence of this
order? And Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation will seal the doom of one
hundred thousand of his own people!
A letter from Gen. Lee, dated October 1st, says that
McClellan has not crossed the Potomac. Some of his scouts have been at Martinsburg,
or in its vicinity. It is not to be supposed that Lee can be, amused by
McClellan, while a force of any magnitude is sent against Richmond. Some fear
this, but I don't.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 163-4
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