The rumor that Gen. Lee had resigned was simply a fabrication.
His headquarters, a few days ago, were at Culpepper C. H., and may be soon this
side of the Rappahannock. A battle and a victory may take place there.
Col. J. Gorgas, I presume, is no friend of Pemberton; it is
not often that Northern men in our service are exempt from jealousies and
envyings. He sends to the Secretary of War to-day a remarkable statement of Eugene
Hill, an ordnance messenger, for whom he vouches, in relation to the siege and
surrender of Vicksburg. It appears that Hill had been sent here by Lieut.-Gen.
Holmes for ammunition, and on his way back to the trans-Mississippi country,
was caught at Vicksburg, where he was detained until after the capitulation. He
declares that the enemy's mines did our works no more injury than our mines did
theirs; that when the surrender took place, there were an abundance of caps,
and of all kinds of ordnance stores; that there were 90,000 pounds of bacon or
salt meat unconsumed, besides a number of cows, and 400 mules, grazing within
the fortifications; and that but few of the men even thought of such a contingency
as a surrender, and did not know it had taken place until the next day (5th of July),
when they were ordered to march out and lay down their arms. He adds that Gen.
Pemberton kept himself very close, and was rarely seen by the troops, and was
never known to go out to the works until he went out to surrender.
Major-Gen. D. Maury writes from Mobile, to the President,
that he apprehends an attack from Banks, and asks instructions relative to the
removal of 15,000 non-combatants from the city. He says Forts Gaines and Morgan
are provisioned for six months, and that the land fortifications are numerous
and formidable. He asks for 20,000 men to garrison them. The President
instructs the Secretary, that when the purpose of the enemy is positively
known, it will be time enough to remove the women, children, etc.; but that the
defenses should be completed, and everything in readiness. But where the 20,000
men are to come from is not stated — perhaps from Johnston.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 389-90
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