A clear night and
frosty morning.
We have no news
except that gleaned from Northern papers. Gen. Hood is unable to cross the Tennessee
River (now swollen), and would soon be attacked again by superior numbers.
Congress was in
secret session yesterday, probably perfecting the bill for the suspension of
the privilege of habeas corpus. Gen. Bragg is credited with the repulse of the enemy
at Wilmington.
During the late raid
a close-fisted farmer lost heavily several hundred barrels of flour and corn,
one hundred barrels of apples, a large amount of bacon and sorghum, which he
was hoarding, and thus contributing to produce famine in the midst of plenty.
His neighbors (those few not following his example) express no sympathy for
him. The enemy did not burn Liberty Mills—once in their possession, in which is
stored a large amount of grain—for some unexplained reason.
The enemy's papers
show that they have regular and expeditious intercourse with parties here, and
are kept correctly advised of everything that transpires. This is a continuance
of Mr. Benjamin's policy by Mr. Seddon. It may be lucrative to those
immediately interested; but if not abated, will be the death of the Confederate
States Government—as I have told them all repeatedly.
And the "Bureau
of Conscription" still exists, and seems destined to "be in at the
death."
I paid Lieut. Parker
just $30.75 for a load of coal; selling at $75. I saw selling at auction,
to-day, second-hand shirts at $40 each, and blankets at $75. A bedstead, such
as I have bought for $10, brought $700. But $50 in Confederate States paper are
really worth only $1 in specie.
Jos. R. Anderson
& Co. writes that unless their hands are sent in from the trenches, they
cannot fill orders for ordnance stores; and Gen. Gorgas (he has been promoted)
approves it, saying it is known that a number of these hands intend to desert
the first opportunity.
The last call for
the clerks to return to the trenches was responded to by not a man of Capt.
Manico's company, War Department proper.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 369-70
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