Another letter from Gen. Whiting, urging the government by every
consideration, and with all the ingenuity and eloquence of language at his
command, to save Wilmington by sending reinforcements thither, else it must be
inevitably lost. He says it will not do to rely upon what now seems the merest
stupidity of the enemy, for they already have sufficient forces and means at
their command and within reach to capture the fort and city. He has but one
regiment for its defense!
I saw to-day a telegraphic correspondence between the
Secretary of War and Gen. Buckner in regard to the invasion of Kentucky, the
general agreeing to it, being sure that with 10,000 men he could compel
Rosecrans to fall back, etc. But I suppose the fall of Vicksburg, and the
retreat from Pennsylvania, caused its abandonment.
Hon. Wm. Capeton, C. S. Senate, writes the Secretary on the
subject of compelling those who have hired substitutes now to serve themselves,
and he advocates it. He says the idea is expanding that the rich, for whose
benefit the war is waged, have procured substitutes to fight for them, while
the poor, who have no slaves to lose, have not been able to procure
substitutes. All will be required to fight, else all will be engulfed in one
common destruction. He will endeavor to get an expression of' opinion from the
Legislature, about to assemble, and after that he will advocate the measure in
Congress, intimating that Congress should be convened at an early day.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
30-1
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