No authentic information of a battle near Manassas has been
received at the War Department, although it is certain there has been some
heavy skirmishing on the Rappahannock. We have several brigadier-generals
wounded, and lost five guns; but, being reinforced, continued the pursuit of
the enemy, picking up many prisoners — they say 1500. The pursuit was retarded
by the swelling of the streams.
A letter from Major-Gen. Jones, at Dublin Depot, Va., Oct.
14th, leads me to think danger is apprehended in that quarter, the objective
point being the Salt Works; and it may be inferred, from the fact that Burnside
is still there, that Rosecrans is considered safe, by reason of the heavy
reinforcements sent from other quarters.
While I write, the government is having the tocsin sounded
for volunteers from the militia to go to the rescue of the Salt Works, which is
absurd, as the enemy will either have them before aid can be received from
Richmond, or else he will have been driven off by the local troops near that
vicinity.
Captain Warner took me in his buggy this morning to the
military prisons. He did not lead me into the crowded rooms above, where he
said I would be in danger of vermin, but exhibited his cooking apparatus, etc. —
which was ample and cleanly. Everywhere I saw the captives peeping through the
bars; they occupy quite a number of large buildings — warehouses — and some
exhibited vengeful countenances. They have half a pound of beef per day, and
plenty of good bread and water — besides vegetables and other matters furnished
by themselves. Several new furnaces are in process of erection, and most of the
laborers are Federal prisoners, who agree to work (for their own convenience)
and are paid for it the usual wages. There are baths to the prisons; and the
conduits for venting, etc. have cost some $10,000. To-day the weather is as
warm as summer, and no doubt the prisoners sigh for the open air (although all
the buildings are well ventilated), and their distant homes in the West — most
of them being from the field of Chickamauga.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
73
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