Bright. Tom's
rations came in—worth $200— for a month.
Gen. Lee writes that
it is necessary for the gun-boats to guard the river as far below Chaffin's
Bluffs as possible, to prevent the enemy from throwing a force to the south bank
in the rear of Gen. Pickett's lines; for then Gen. P. must withdraw his forces,
and the abandonment of Petersburg will follow, “with its railroad connections,
throwing the whole army back to the defense of Richmond. I should regard this
as a great disaster, and as seriously endangering the safety of the city. We
should not only lose a large section of country from which our position enables
us to draw supplies, but the enemy would be brought nearer to the only
remaining railway communication between Richmond and the South. It would make
the tenure of the city depend upon our ability to hold this long line of
communication against the largely superior force of the enemy, and I think
would greatly diminish the prospects of successful defense.” He suggests that
more men and small boats be put in the river to prevent the enemy from placing
torpedoes in the rear of the iron-clads, when on duty down the river at night.
J. H. Reagan,
Postmaster-General, has written a furious letter to the Secretary, complaining
of incivility on the part of Mr. Wilson, Commissary Agent to issue beef in
Richmond. Judge R. went there to draw the beef ration for Col. Lubbock, one of
the President's aid-de-camps (late Governor of Texas). He says he is
able-bodied and ought to be in the army. Mr. Wilson sends in certificates of
two men who were present, contradicting the judge's statement of the language
used by Mr. W. The Secretary has not yet acted in the case.
Beverly Tucker is in
Canada, and has made a contract for the Confederate States Government with ———
& Co., of New York, to deliver bacon for cotton, pound for pound. It was
made by authority of the Secretary of War, certified to by Hon. C. C. Clay and
J. Thompson, both in Canada. The Secretary of the Treasury don't like it.
It is reported that
after the success reported by Gen. Lee, Early was again defeated.
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