Northern papers, received last night, speak of a battle at
Perryville, Kentucky, on the 9th instant, in which the Abolitionists lost, by
their own confession, 2000 killed and wounded, which means 10,000. They say
Bragg's forces held a portion of the field after the battle. If this
prove not a glorious victory for our arms, I don't know how to read Abolition
journals.
I see that our Congress, late on Saturday night (they
adjourn to-day), passed an act increasing the salaries of officers and
employees in the departments residing at Richmond. This will make the joint
compensation of my son and myself $3000; this is not equal to $2000 a year ago.
But Congress failed to make the necessary appropriation. The Secretary might
use the contingent fund.
Another act authorizes the President to appoint twenty
additional brigadier-generals, and a number of lieutenant-generals.
The New York Herald, and even the Tribune, are
tempting us to return to the Union, by promises of protecting
slavery, and an offer of a convention to alter the Constitution, giving us
such guarantees of safety as we may demand. This is significant. We
understand the sign.
Letters from Gen. Lee do not indicate an immediate purpose
to retire from the Potomac; on the contrary, he has ordered Gen. Loring, if
practicable, to menace Wheeling and Pennsylvania, and form a junction with him via
the Monongahela and Upper Potomac. But Loring does not deem it safe to move
all his forces (not more than 6000) by that route; he will, however, probably send
his cavalry into Pennsylvania.
Aud Gen. Lee does not want any more raw conscripts. They get
sick immediately, and prove a burden instead of a benefit. He desires them to
be kept in camps of instruction, until better seasoned (a term invented
by Gen. Wise) for the field.
Senator Brown, of Mississippi, opposed the bill increasing
our salaries, on the ground that letters from himself, indorsed by the
President, applying for clerkships for his friends, remained unanswered. He
did not seem to know that this was exclusively the fault of the head clerk, Mr.
Randolph, who has the title of Secretary of War.
And the Examiner denounces the bill, because it seems
to sanction a depreciation of our currency! What statesmanship! What logic!
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 168-9
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