Clear and cold.
No further news from the iron-clad
fleet that went down the river.
Beef is selling at $8 per
pound this morning; wood at $150 per cord. Major Maynard, instead of bringing
120, gets in but 30 or 40 cords per day. I am out of wood, and must do my
little cooking in the parlor with the coal in the grate. This is famine!
Congress passed a bill a few
days ago increasing the number of midshipmen, and allowing themselves to
appoint a large proportion of them. Yesterday the President vetoed the bill, he
alone, by the Constitution, being authorized to make all appointments. But the
Senate immediately repassed it over the veto—only three votes in the negative.
Thus the war progresses! And Mr. Hunter was one of the three.
The President, in reply to a
committee of the State Legislature, says Gen. Lee has always refused to accept
the command of all the armies unless he could relinquish the immediate command
of the Army of Northern Virginia defending the capital; and that he is and ever
has been willing to bestow larger powers on Gen. Lee; but he would not accept
them.
This makes me doubt whether
the President has signed the bill creating a commander-in-chief.
It is said again, that
Commissary-General Northrop has resigned. Doubtful.
Still, there are no beggars
in the streets, except a few women of foreign or Northern birth. What a people!
If our affairs were managed properly, subjugation would be utterly impossible.
But all the statesmen of the years preceding the war have been, somehow,
"ruled out" of positions, and wield no influence, unless it be a
vengeful one in private. Where are the patriots of the decade between 1850 and
1860? "Echo answers where?" Who is responsible for their absence? A
fearful responsibility! Gold is quoted at $35 for $1-illusory! Perhaps worse.
The statistics furnished by my son Custis of the military strength of the
Confederate States, and ordered by the President to be preserved on file in the
department, seems to have attracted the attention of Mr. Assistant Secretary
Campbell, and elicited a long indorsement, saying a calculation of the number
of casualties of war was not made all this after the paper was sent in by the
President. But the estimate was made, and included in the reduction from the
800,000, leaving 600,000. Judge C. thinks 200,000 have been killed, 50,000
permanently disabled, and 55,000 are prisoners; still 500,000 availables would
be left.
Custis has drafted, and will
send to the President, a bill establishing a Corps of Honor, with a view to
excite emulation and to popularize the service, now sadly needed.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp
Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 398-400
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