Clear and pleasant;
subsequently thawing and foggy. Gen. R. E. Lee has been appointed
General-in-Chief by the President, in response to the recent action of Congress
and the clamorous demands of the people. It is to be hoped he will,
nevertheless, remain in person at the head of the Army of Virginia, else the
change may be fraught with disaster, and then his popularity will vanish! He
has not been fortunate when not present with the troops under his command, as
evidenced by Early's defeat and Jones's disaster in the Valley last year. A
general must continue to reap successes if he retains his popularity.
Gen. Lee has called
upon the people everywhere to send in any cavalry arms and equipments in their
possession—the importation being stopped.
The report of a raid
yesterday, grew out of the return to the city of a small body of our own
cavalry that had been on detached service. Quite an alarm was raised!
The President was
better yesterday; it is neuralgia in the right shoulder, disabling his arm.
Our
"commissioners" were delayed until yesterday morning at Petersburg;
during which there was a sort of truce, and the troops of the opposing
fortifications ventured out, both sides cheering vociferously.
Gen. Lee writes that
his army is suffering for want of soap. The Secretary sends the letter to
Commissary-General Northrop (neither of their successors being inducted yet)
for "prompt attention." The Commissary-General sends it back, saying
800 barrels of soap are now, and have been for months, lying at Charlotte, N.
C., awaiting transportation! The speculators get from Charlotte that much
freight every week. The Commissary-General says 800 barrels of soap ought to last
Gen. Lee's army one month. It must be a large army to consume that amount of
soap in a month.
Yesterday Congress
passed another bill over the President's veto, to allow soldiers to receive
letters, etc. free. Thus the war progresses between the executive and the
legislative branches of the government.
In future
revolutions, never let a "permanent government" be established until
independence is achieved!
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 405-6
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