Clear and pleasant.
Cannon heard down the river.
Mr. E. A. Pollard,
taken by the Federals in an attempt to run the blockade last spring, has
returned, and reports that Gen. Butler has been relieved of his command—probably
for his failure to capture Wilmington. Mr. Pollard says that during his
captivity he was permitted, on parole, to visit the Northern cities, and he
thinks the Northern conscription will ruin the war party.
But, alas! the lax
policy inaugurated by Mr. Benjamin, and continued by every succeeding Secretary
of War, enables the enemy to obtain information of all our troubles and all our
vulnerable points. The United States can get recruits under the conviction that
there will be little or no more fighting.
Some $40,000 worth
of provisions, belonging to speculators, but marked for a naval bureau and the
Mining and Niter Bureau, have been seized at Danville. This is well-if it be
not too late.
A letter from Mr.
Trenholm, Secretary of the Treasury, to Mr. Wagner, Charleston, S. C. (sent
over for approval), appoints him agent to proceed to Augusta, etc., with
authority to buy all the cotton for the government, at $1 to $1.25 per pound;
and then sell it for sterling bills of exchange to certain parties, giving them
permission to remove it within the enemy's lines; or "better still,"
to have it shipped abroad on government account by reliable parties. This
indicates a purpose to die "full-handed," if the government must die,
and to defeat the plans of the enemy to get the cotton. Is the Federal
Government a party to this arrangement? Gold was $60 for one yesterday. I
suppose there is no change to-day.
Judge Campbell,
Assistant Secretary, returned to his room today, mine not suiting him.
Col. Sale, Gen.
Bragg's military secretary, told me to-day that the general would probably
return from Wilmington soon. His plan for filling the ranks by renovating the
whole conscription system, will, he fears, slumber until it is too late, when
ruin will overtake us! If the President would only put Bragg at the head of the
conscription business—and in time—we might be saved.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 382-3
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