Gen. Lee recommends
the formation of several more brigades of cavalry, mostly from regiments and
companies in South Carolina, and to this he anticipates objections on the part
of the generals and governors along the Southern seaboard; but he deems it necessary,
as the enemy facing him has a vastly superior cavalry force.
The prisoners on
Belle Isle (8000) have had no meat for eleven days. The Secretary says the
Commissary-General informs him that they fare as well as our armies, and so he
refused the commissary (Capt. Warner) of the prisoners a permit to buy and
bring to the city cattle he might be able to find. An outbreak of the prisoners
is apprehended: and if they were to rise, it is feared some of the inhabitants
of the city would join them, for they, too, have no meat—many of them—or bread
either. They believe the famine is owing to the imbecility, or worse, of the
government. A riot would be a dangerous occurrence, now: the city battalion
would not fire on the people—and if they did, the army might break up, and
avenge their slaughtered kindred. It is a perilous time.
My wife paid $12,
to-day, for a half bushel of meal; meantime I got an order for two bushels,
from Capt. Warner, at $10 per bushel.
The President
receives visitors to-night; and, for the first time, I think I will go.
Mr. Foote,
yesterday, offered a resolution that the Commissary-General ought to be
removed; which was defeated by a decided vote, twenty in the affirmative.
Twenty he relied on failed him. Letters from all quarters denounce the
Commissary-General and his agents.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel
War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
135-6
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