Clear, with high
wind. Nothing further from North Carolina. A dispatch from Gen. Lee states that
he has directed Gen. Cobb to organize an expedition into Tennessee, to cut the
enemy's communications. Gen. Wafford, of Kentucky, is in Georgia, with 2000
mounted men, etc.
Beef in market this
morning sold at $12 to $15 per pound; bacon at $20, and butter at $20.
The parade of a few companies
of negro troops yesterday was rather a ridiculous affair. The owners are
opposed to it.
Gen. Rains sends in
an indorsement, alleging that owing to the deception of Quartermaster Rhett
(not furnishing transportation), he failed to arrest the approach of the enemy
on a narrow causeway; and Columbia, S. C., and his shells, etc. fell into the
hands of the enemy.
A dispatch from Lee
states that Gen. Thomas is at Knoxville, and that the enemy has commenced his
advance from that direction—is repairing railroads, etc. The same dispatch says
Gen. J. E. Johnston is removing his wounded to Smithsville from Bentonville;
that the intrenchments of the enemy and greatly superior numbers of Sherman
render further offensive operations impracticable.
Grant's grand combination
is now developed. Sherman from the Southwest, 70,000; Grant himself from the
South, 70,000; Thomas, from the West, 40,000; and Sheridan, with 15,000 cavalry
from the North-some 200,000 men converging toward this point. To defend it we
shall have 120,000 men, without provisions, and, without some speedy successes,
no communications with the regions of supply or transportation! Now is coming
the time for the exercise of great generalship!
Gen. Early has been
sent to the West—Tennessee.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 457
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