Bright and
beautiful.
Some firing was
heard early this morning on the Darbytown road, or in that direction; but it
soon ceased, and no fighting of moment is anticipated to-day, for Gen.
Longstreet is in the city.
My son Thomas drew a
month's rations yesterday, being detailed for clerical service with Gen.
Kemper. He got 35 pounds of flour (market value $70), 31 pounds of beef
($100.75), 3 pounds of rice ($6), one sixth of a cord of wood ($13.33), salt
($2), tobacco ($5), vinegar ($3)—making $200 per month; clothing furnished by
government, $500 per annum; cash, $18 per month; $4 per day extra, and $40 per
month for quarters; or $5000 per annum.
Custis and I get $4000
each-making in all $13,000! Yet we cannot subsist and clothe the family; for,
alas, the paper money is $30 for one in specie!
The steamers have
brought into Wilmington immense amounts of quartermaster stores, and perhaps
our armies are the best clad in the world. If the spirit of speculation be
laid, and all the men and resources of the country be devoted to defense (as
seems now to be the intention), the United States could never find men and
material sufficient for our subjugation. We could maintain the war for an
indefinite period, unless, indeed, fatal dissensions should spring up among
ourselves.
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