Gen. Bragg and others recommend Gen. Hood for promotion to a
lieutenant-generalcy; but the President says it is impossible, as the number
authorized by Congress is full. And Gen. Bragg also gives timely notice to the
Commissary-General that the supplies at Atlanta will suffice for but a few
weeks longer. This, Commissary-General Northrop took in high dudgeon, indorsing
on the paper that there was no necessity for such a message to him; that Bragg
knew very well that every effort had been and would be made to subsist the
army; and that when he evacuated Tennessee, the great source of supplies was
abandoned. In short, the only hope of obtaining ample supplies was for Gen.
Bragg to recover Tennessee, and drive Rosecrans out of the country.
The President has at last consented to send troops for the
protection of Wilmington — Martin's brigade; and also Clingman's, from Charleston,
if the enemy should appear before Wilmington.
I read to-day an interesting report from one of our secret
agents — Mr. A. Superviele — of his diplomatic operations in Mexico, which
convinces me that the French authorities there favor the Confederate States
cause, and anticipate closer relations before long. When he parted with
Almonte, the latter assured him that his sympathies were with the South, and
that if he held any position in the new government (which he does now) he might
say to President Davis that his influence would be exerted for the recognition
of our independence.
Mr. Jeptha Fowlkes, of Aberdeen, Miss., sends a proposition
to supply our army with 200,000 suits of clothing, 50,000 pairs of shoes, etc.
etc. from the United States, provided he be allowed to give cotton in return.
Mr. Randolph made a contract with him last year, of this nature, which our
government revoked afterward. We shall see what will be done now.
It is positively asserted that Gen. Bragg has arrested
Lieut. Gen. (Bishop) Polk and Brig.-Gen. Hindman, for disobedience of orders in
the battle of Chickamauga.
Letter From President Davis. — The Mobile papers publish the
following letter from President Davis to the "Confederate Society,"
of Enterprise, Miss.:
There is a revival in the city among the Methodists; and
that suggests a recent expiring. In my young days I saw much of these
sensational excitements, and partook of them: for how can the young resist
them? But it is the Cesarean method of being born again, violating reason, and
perhaps outraging nature. There was one gratifying deduction derived from my
observation tonight, at the Clay Street meeting-house — the absence of allusion
to the war. I had supposed the attempt would be made by the exhorters to appeal
to the fears of the soldiery, composing more than half the congregation, and
the terrors of death be held up before them. But they knew better; they knew
that every one of them had made up his mind to die, and that most of them
expected either death or wounds in this mortal struggle for independence. The
fact is they are familiar with death in all its phases, and there is not a
coward among them. They look upon danger with the most perfect indifference,
and fear not to die. Hence there was no allusion to the battle-field, which has
become a scene divested of novelty. But the appeals were made to their
sympathies, and reliance was placed on the force of example, and the contagion
of ungovernable emotions.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
62-4
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