Very hot; very dry;
very dusty.
The President has
directed the late Gen. (now Lieut.-Col.) Pemberton to organize a mortar and
cavalry force to dislodge the enemy from Deep Bottom, on this side of the
river, and to select three or four batteries to render the navigation of the
James River difficult and dangerous. Col. P. says he must have some 1500
cavalry, etc.
Letters from Mr.
McRae, our agent abroad, show that our finances and credit are improving
wonderfully, and that the government will soon have a great many fine steamers
running the blockade. Mr. McR. has contracted for eight steel-clad
steamers with a single firm, Frazer, Trenholm & Co.—the latter now our
Secretary of the Treasury.
The President
indorsed a cutting rebuke to both the Secretary of War and a Mr. (now
Lieut.-Col.) Melton, A. A. General's office, to-day. It was on an order for a
quartermaster at Atlanta to report here and settle his accounts. Mr. M. had
written on the order that it was issued “by order of the President.” The
President said he was responsible for all orders issued by the War Department,
but it was a great presumption of any officer in that department to assume to
indorse on any paper that it was by his special order, and that, too, "by
command of the Secretary of War,” the usual form.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 262
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