A bright frosty
morning.
This day I am
fifty-five years of age.
It is now reported
that Gen. Early made his escape, and that most of his men have straggled into
this city.
One body of
Sheridan's men are said to have been at Gordonsville yesterday, coming
hitherward, while another were near Scottsville, aiming for the South Side
Railroad.
The
Adjutant-General, having granted furloughs to the returned prisoners two days
ago, to-day revokes them. Will such vacillating policy conciliate the troops,
and incite them to heroic deeds?
The President and
his wife were at church yesterday; so they have not left the city; but Gen.
Lee's family, it is rumored, are packing up to leave.
I bought a quarter
of a cord of oak wood this morning to mix with the green pine, and paid $55 for
it.
Gen. Early's
cavalry, being mostly men of property, were two-thirds of them on furlough or
detail, when the enemy advanced on Charlottesville; and the infantry, being
poor, with no means either to bribe the authorities, to fee members of
Congress, or to aid their suffering families, declined to fight in defense of
the property of their rich and absent neighbors! We lost four guns beyond
Charlottesville, and our forces were completely routed.
There are rumors
to-day that a column of the enemy's cavalry has reached Hanover County. Gen. R.
E. Lee has ordered Major-Gen. Fitz Lee's cavalry to march against them.
Twelve M. They are
bringing boxes to the War Office, to pack up the archives. This certainly
indicates a sudden removal in an emergency. It is not understood whether they
go to Danville or to Lynchburg; that may depend upon Grant's movements. It may,
however, be Lee's purpose to attack Grant; meantime preparing to fall back in
the event of losing the day.
Four days hence we
have a day of fasting, etc., appointed by the President; and I understand there
are but three day's rations for the army—a nice calculation.
Gen. Johnston
telegraphs the Secretary that his army must suffer, if not allowed to get
commissary stores in the North Carolina depots. The Secretary replies that of
course his army must be fed, but hopes he can buy enough, etc., leaving the
stores already collected for Lee's army, which is in great straits.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 441
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