The President has not yet returned, but was inspecting the
defenses of Charleston. The Legislature has adjourned without fixing a maximum
of prices. Every night troops from Lee's army are passing through the city. Probably
they have been ordered to Bragg.
Yesterday flour sold at auction at $100 per barrel; to-day
it sells for $120! There are 40,000 bushels of sweet potatoes, taken by the
government as tithes, rotting at the depots between Richmond and Wilmington. If
the government would wake up, and have them brought hither and sold, the people
would be relieved, and flour and meal would decline in price. But a lethargy
has seized upon the government, and no one may foretell the consequences of
official supineness.
The enemy at Chattanooga have got an advantageous position
on Bragg's left, and there is much apprehension that our army will lose the
ground gained by the late victory.
The Commissary-General (Northrop) has sent in his estimate
for the ensuing year, $210,000,000, of which $50,000,000 is for sugar,
exclusively for the hospitals. It no longer forms part of the rations. He
estimates for 400,000 men, and takes no account of the tithes, or tax in kind,
nor is it apparent that he estimates for the army beyond the Mississippi.
A communication was received to-day from Gen. Meredith, the.
Federal Commissioner of Exchange, inclosing a letter from Gov. Todd [sic] and Gen. Mason, as well as copies
of letters from some of Morgan's officers, stating that the heads of Morgan and
his men are not shaved, and that they are well fed and comfortable.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
89
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