It is clear and cold again. Custis came home last evening,
after a week's sojourn at Chaffim’s Bluff, where, however, there were tents.
Some 1500 local troops, or “National Guards,” had been sent there to relieve
Pickett's division, recalled by Lee; but when Meade recrossed the Rapidan,
there was no longer any necessity for the “Guards” to remain on duty. A brigade
of regulars goes down to-day. Custis says it was the third day before
ammunition was issued! Yesterday he heard shelling down the river, by the
enemy's gun-boats.
I had a conversation with Col. Northrop, Commissary-General,
to-day. He anticipates a collision between the Confederate and State
authorities on the impressment question. He says the law was intended to secure
subsistence for both the people and the army; but there is not sufficient grain
in the States. Therefore the army must have what there is, and the people must
go without. I differed with him, and maintained if a proper distribution were
made there would be enough for all.
To-morrow Congress assembles. It is to be apprehended that a
conflict with the Executive will ensue—instead of unanimity against the common
enemy—and no one living can foretell the issue, because no one knows the extent
of capacity and courage on either side.
The President has made his cabinet a unit.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
111-2
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