Bright and frosty.
This is the day
designated by the President for worship, etc., and the offices and places of
business are all closed. It is like Sunday, with an occasional report of cannon
down the river.
I doubt whether the
clerks in the trenches will pray for the President. Compelled to volunteer under
a threat of removal, they were assured that they would only be called out in
times of great urgency, and then be returned to their offices in a few days.
They have now been in the front trenches several months; while the different
secretaries are quietly having their kinsmen and favorites detailed back to
their civil positions, the poor and friendless are still “left out in the
cold.” Many of these have refugee families dependent on them, while those
brought in are mostly rich, having sought office merely to avoid service in the
field. The battalion, numbering 700, has less than 200 now in the trenches.
Hundreds of the local forces, under a sense of wrong, have deserted to the
enemy.
Gen. Breckinridge
has beaten the enemy at Bull's Gap, Tenn., taking several hundred prisoners, 6
guns, etc.
Mr. Hunter was at
the department early this morning in quest of news.
Gave $75 for a load
of coal.
Messrs. Evans &
Cogswell, Columbia, S. C., have sent me some of their recent publications : “A
Manual of Military Surgery, by I. Julian Chisolm, M.D., 3d edition;” “Digest
of the Military and Naval Laws,” by Lester & Bromwell; “Duties of a
Judge Advocate, etc.” by Capt. R. C. Gilchrist; and “A Map of East Virginia and
North Carolina;” all beautifully printed and bound.
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