W——ll, one of the Winder detectives that fled to Washington
last year, is back again. But the Mayor has arrested him as a spy, and it is
said a lady in the city can prove his guilt. Gen. Winder wanted to bail him;
but the Mayor was inexorable, and so W——ll is in the jail, awaiting his trial.
Two others, of Winder's police, have
likewise been arrested by the city authorities for some harsh treatment of a citizen
supposed to have a barrel of whisky in his house. The justification offered is
the jurisdiction of martial law, which Gen. Winder still thinks exists,
although annulled by Congress.
The company (of 104) organized in the War Department as independent
volunteers for local defense, being objected to by Gen. Elzey, because they
would not be subject to his command, was rejected by the President, who
insisted that the officers of the departments (civil) should be mustered into
the service under the act of August 21st, 1861, and are subject to his control,
and liable to be attached to battalions, regiments, etc., he appointing the
field and staff officers. This was communicated to the lieutenant of the
company by the Secretary of War, who stated also that the President required
the names of all refusing to reorganize on that basis to be reported to him.
There is an indefinable dread of conspiracy, and the
President is right, perhaps, to frown upon all military organizations not
subject to his orders. Mr. Randolph, late Secretary of War, has been very busy
organizing the second class militia of the city for. “local defense,” under the
supposition that he would command them; but the President has made a requisition
for 8000 of this class of men, for the same purpose, which will put them under
Confederate orders, perhaps. A jealousy, I fear, is growing up between
Confederate and State authority. This when the common enemy is thundering at
all our gates!
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 347-8
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