Clear and frosty.
Guns heard down the river. Dispatches came last night for ammunition-to
Wilmington, I believe. We have nothing yet decisive from Fort Fisher, but I fear
it will fall.
Mr. Hunter was in
the Secretary's office this morning before the Secretary came. I could give him
no news from Wilmington. He is much distressed; but if the enemy prevails, I
have no doubt he will stipulate saving terms for Virginia. He cannot
contemplate the ruin of his fortune; political ruin is quite as much as he can
bear. Always at the elbow of the Secretary, he will have timely notice of any
fatal disaster. He is too fat to run, too heavy to swim, and therefore must
provide some other means of escape.
Last night and early
this morning the Jews and others were busy, with hand-carts and wheelbarrows,
removing barrels of flour from the center to the outskirts of the city, fearful
of impressment. They need not fear.
I have enough flour,
meal, and beans (black) to subsist my family two weeks. After that, I look to
the kind Providence which has hitherto always fed us.
It is now rumored
that Mr. Blair came to negotiate terms for the capitulation of Richmond, and
that none were listened to. Better that, if it must fall, than be given up to
pillage and the flames. If burning our cities had been the order in 1862, it
might have been well; it is too late now!
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 387
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