Hazy, misty weather.
Gen. Lovell (who lost New Orleans) has applied for a command in the West, and
Gen. Johnston approves it strongly. He designs dividing his army into three
corps, giving one (3d division) to Gen. Hardee; one (2d division) to Gen.
Hindman; and one (1st division) to Lovell. But the Secretary of War (wide awake)
indorses a disapproval, saying, in his opinion, it would be injudicious to
place a corps under the command of Gen. Lovell, and it would not give
confidence to the army. This being sent to the President, came back indorsed, “opinion
concurred in.—J. D.”
Gen. Pillow has
applied for the command of two brigades for operations between Gen. Johnston's
and Gen. Polk's armies, protecting the flanks of both, and guarding the coal
mines, iron works, etc. in Middle Alabama. This is strongly approved by
Generals Johnston, Polk, Gov. Watts & Co. But the President has not yet
decided the matter.
The
Commissary-General is appointing many ladies to clerkships. Old men, disabled
soldiers, and ladies are to be relied on for clerical duty, nearly all others
to take the field. But every ingenuity is resorted to by those having in
substitutes to evade military service.
There is a great
pressure of foreigners (mostly Irish) for passes to leave the country.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel
War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
140
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