We have no further news from the army, except the usual
skirmishing. A number of our wounded arrived last evening. An officer reports
that, from what he could see of the enemy's conduct, the soldiers do not come
to the point with alacrity. He thinks they fight with reluctance, and are
liable to be routed any hour by inferior numbers.
Troops were sent up in special trains last night, and also
this morning. These are some of the regiments which Gen. D. P. [sic] Hill had in North Carolina; and
hence the complaints of Gov. Vance, that his State did not have its just
proportion of the protection of the government. Of Longstreet's movements, I am
not advised. But there will be news enough in a few days.
The President's health is still precarious, and he is still
threatened with the loss of his remaining eye.
The Vice-President was in my office yesterday, and told me
his health is quite as good as usual. One would suppose him to be afflicted
with all manner of diseases, and doomed to speedy dissolution; but, then, he
has worn this appearance during the last twenty years. His eyes are magnificent,
and his mind is in the meridian of intellectual vigor.
There has been some commotion in the city this afternoon and
evening, but no painful alarm, produced by intelligence that the enemy's
cavalry, that cut the road at Trevillian's depot, had reached Ashland and
destroyed the depot. Subsequent rumors brought them within eight miles of the
city; and we have no force of any consequence here. The account was brought
from Ashland by Mr. Davis, who killed his horse in riding eighteen miles in one
hour and a half.
Later in the day a young man, sixteen years old (Shelton),
reached the city from Hanover on a United States horse, the enemy having
foraged on his father's farm and taken his blooded steed. He says, when he
escaped from them (having been taken prisoner this morning) 1500 were at his
father's place, and three times as many more, being 6000 in all, were resting a
short distance apart on another farm; but such ideas of numbers are generally
erroneous. They told him they had been in the saddle five days, and had burnt
all the bridges behind them to prevent pursuit. It was after this that they cut
the road at Ashland. They professed to have fresh horses taken from our people,
leaving their own. I think they will disappear down the Pamunky, and of course
will cut the Central and York River Roads, and the wires. Thus communication
with Lee's army is interrupted!
The Fredericksburg train, of course, failed to arrive to-day
at 6 P.M.; and it is rumored there were 700 of our wounded in it, and that a great
battle was fought yesterday by Lee. These are rumors.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 306-7
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