Cloudy and pleasant.
Still we have no
authentic account of the details of the fights on the north side of the James
River. We know we lost two brigadier-generals, and that we captured some 600
prisoners. Of the number killed and wounded on either side is all conjecture,
although a semi-official statement makes our loss but "light.”
Nevertheless, I
happen to know that the President rode out yesterday, and remained until late
in the night: for Mr. Craddock, his special detective (and formerly his
messenger), whom he sent for to accompany him, assures me while on the field
there was a flag of truce to bury the dead, and that the slaughter had been
large. Our cavalry had suffered; but he thinks the enemy's infantry lost many
more men than all our slain together. He says, moreover, that only one negro
prisoner reached the city. The rest, thrust forward, being killed on the field
in action, I suppose.
At 2 P.M. a rumor
began to be expanded that a terrific and probably a decisive battle was going
on at Petersburg. One report says the enemy assaulted our lines, the operations
on this side of the river having been more a feint to draw our forces away;
another that Gen. Beauregard attacked the enemy, finding their troops in large
force had crossed over to this side, and this in the absence of Gen. Lee, he
taking the responsibility. Be this as it may, some stir was in the cabinet: and
the Secretary of War was with the President from 11 A.M. till 3 P.M. This might
be on "appointments and promotions," and it might be on Beauregard.
About 5 P.M. brisk
artillery firing was heard in a southeast direction, which increased in
rapidity, and apparently became nearer the city, until musketry could be
distinctly heard from all parts of the city. My daughter Anne and her younger
brother, Thomas, had walked out to Hollywood Cemetery, where they could not
only hear the firing, but could see the lines of smoke below the city, on the
left or north bank. Between 6 and 7 P.M. the sound seemed to recede, indicating
that the assault had been repulsed; and finally all was silent again. It is
probable the battle raged likewise on the south side of the river, and it may
be hoped the assault on Petersburg was similarly repulsed. We shall know
to-morrow.
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