Last night the rain fell in torrents, and to-day there is a violent
storm of wind, from the N.W. This may put an end, for a season, to campaigning
on land, and the enemy's fleet at sea may be dispersed. Providence may thus
intervene in our behalf.
It is feared that we have met with a serious blow in
Arkansas, but it is not generally believed that so many (5000 to 7000 men)
surrendered, as is stated in the Northern papers. Gen. Holmes is responsible
for the mishap.
Conscription drags its slow length along. It is not yet
adding many to the army. The Assistant Secretary of War, and several others, “by
order of the Secretary of War,” are granting a fearful number of exemptions
daily. Congress, I hope, will modify the exemption bill immediately. It is
believed enrolling officers, surgeons, and others are permitting thousands to
remain at home “for a price.” liven clerks in the War Department, it is said,
are driving a lucrative business in “getting men off,” who should be on duty,
in this war of independence. Young men in the departments, except in
particular eases, will not stand in good repute “when the hurly burly's done, when
the battle's lost and won.”
Congress is at work projecting the organization of a Supreme
Court.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 243
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