A brighter morning,
cool and clear. The President was at work yesterday. He and the Secretary and
Gen. Cooper put their heads together to make up a regiment for Col. Miller in
Mississippi, and designate the two field officers to be under him—from two
battalions and two unattached companies.
If the Northern
(purporting to be official) accounts be true, Gen. Hood has sustained an
irretrievable disaster, which may involve the loss of Tennessee, Georgia, etc.
Hon. Mr. Foote
declared last night his purpose to leave the city in a few days, never to
resume his seat in Congress, if martial law should be allowed. He said he had
information that when Charleston fell, South Carolina would conclude a treaty
of peace (submission?) with the United States; and that North Carolina was
prepared to follow the example! I have observed that these two States do not
often incline to go together.
The great disaster
would be the loss of Richmond and retreat of Lee's army southward. This would
probably be followed by the downfall of slavery in Virginia.
The Secretary of War
has sent an agent to the Governor of North Carolina, to ask for special aid in
supplying Lee's army with meat—which is deficient here or else it cannot be
maintained in the field in Virginia! Very bad, and perhaps worse coming. There
is a rumor that Gen. Breckinridge has beaten Gen. Burbridge in Tennessee or
Western Virginia.
Gen. R. E. Lee is in
town, looking robust, though weather worn. He complains that the department is
depleting his army by details, often for private and speculative purposes, to
the benefit of private individuals—speculators.
I drew my (State)
salt to-day, 70 pounds, for 7 in family-20 cents per pound. It retails at a $1
per pound!
Mr. Secretary has
sent (per Lieut.-Col. Bayne) some gold to Wilmington, to buy (in Nassau) loaf
sugar for his family, to be brought in government steamers.
My son Thomas could
get no beef ration to-day—too scarce.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 359-60
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