I believe the commissaries and quartermasters are cheating
the government. The Quartermaster-General sent in a paper, to-day, saying he
did not need the contributions of clothes tendered by the people of Petersburg,
but still would pay for them. They were offered for nothing.
The Commissary-General to-day says there is not wheat enough
in Virginia (when a good crop was raised) for Gen. Lee's army, and unless he
has millions in money and cotton, the army must disband for want of food. I
don't believe it.
There are 5000 negroes working on the fortifications near
the city, and 2500 are to work on the Piedmont Railroad.
We are all hoping that New York and other States declared
against the Republicans, at the elections in the United States, on Tuesday
last. Such a communication would be regarded as the harbinger of peace. We are
all weary of the war, but must and will fight on, for no other
alternative remains. Everything, however, indicates that we are upon the eve of
most interesting events. This is the time for England or France to come to the
rescue, and enjoy a commercial monopoly for many years. I think the Secretary of
War has abandoned the idea of trading cotton to the enemy. It might cost him
his head.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 183
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