We have a dispatch from Mississippi, stating that on
Thursday last Grant demanded the surrender of Vicksburg in three days. He was
answered that fifteen minutes were not asked; that the men were ready to die — but
would never surrender. This was followed by another assault, in which the enemy
lost great numbers, and were repulsed — as they have been in every subsequent
attempt to take the town.
A letter from our agent in London says H. O. Brewer, of Mobile,
advanced £10,000 in March last, to buy a steamer for the use of the Confederate
States.
Gen. Whiting writes from Wilmington, that a captured mail
furnishes the intelligence that the enemy have thirty-one regiments at Newbern,
and he apprehends they will cut the railroad at Goldsborough, as we have but
two small brigades to resist them. Then they may march against Wilmington,
where he has not now sufficient forces to man his batteries. The general says
he is quite sure that individual blockade-runners inform the enemy of our
defenseless points, and inflict incalculable injury. He desires the Secretary
to lay his letter before the President.
A circular from the Bureau of Conscription to the
commandants of conscripts says, the Assistant Secretary of War (Judge Campbell)
suggests that overseers and managers on farms be disturbed as little as
possible just at this time, for the benefit of the crops. But what good will
the crops do, if we be subjugated in the mean time? I thought every man was
needed, just at this time, on the field of battle.
The President rides out (on horse) every afternoon, and sits
as straight as an English king could do four centuries ago.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 338-9
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