The cars which came in from the North last night brought a great
many women, children, and negroes from Fredericksburg and its vicinity. The
benevolent and patriotic citizens here had, I believe, made some provision for
their accommodation. But the enemy had not yet shelled the town.
There is a rumor that Jackson was to appear somewhere in the
rear of the enemy, and that the Federal stores which could not be moved with
the army had been burnt at Manassas.
Yesterday the President remitted the sentence of a poor lad,
sentenced to ball-and-chain for six months, for cowardice, etc. He had endured
the penalty three months. I like this act, for the boy had enlisted without the
consent of his parents, and was only sixteen years of age.
J. R. Anderson & Co. (having drawn $500,000 recently on
the contract) have failed to furnish armor for the gun-boats — the excuse being
that iron could not be had for their rolling-mills. The President has ordered
the Secretaries of the Navy and War to consult on the propriety of taking railroad
iron, on certain tracks, for that purpose.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 195
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