Fredericksburg is not shelled yet; and, moreover, the enemy
have apologized for the firing at the train containing women and children.
Affairs remain in statu quo — the mayor and military authorities
agreeing that the town shall furnish neither aid nor comfort to the Confederate
army, and the Federals agreeing not to shell it — for the present.
Gen. Corcoran, last year a prisoner in this city, has landed
his Irish brigade at Newport News. It is probable we shall be assailed from
several directions simultaneously.
No beggars can be found in the streets of this city. No
cry of distress is heard, although it prevails extensively. High officers of the
government have no fuel in their houses, and give nearly $20 per cord for wood
for cooking purposes. And yet there are millions of tons of coal almost under
the very city!
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 196
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