Raining rapidly, and
warm.
Again the sudden
change of weather may be an interposition of Providence to defeat the effort of
the enemy to destroy Gen. Lee's communications with his Southern depots of
supplies. I hope so, for faith in man is growing weaker.
Our loss in the
affair of the 25th instant was heavy, and is now admitted to be a disaster; and
Lee himself was there! It amounted, probably, to 3000 men. Grant says over 2000
prisoners were registered by his Provost Marshal. It is believed the President
advised the desperate undertaking; be that as it may, many such blows cannot
follow in quick succession without producing the most deplorable results. The
government would soon make its escape—if it could. Mrs. Davis, however, soonest
informed of our condition, got away in time.
Dispatches from
Generalissimo Lee inform the Secretary that large expeditions are on foot in
Alabama, Mississippi, etc., and that Thomas's army is rapidly advancing upon
Virginia from East Tennessee, while no general has yet been designated to
command our troops.
The papers say
nothing of the flank movement commenced yesterday by Grant. This reticence
cannot be for the purpose of keeping the enemy in ignorance of it!
I am convalescent,
but too weak to walk to the department today. The deathly "sick man,"
as the Emperor of Russia used to designate the Sultan of Turkey, is our
President. His mind has never yet comprehended the magnitude of the crisis.
Custis says letters
still flow in asking authority to raise negro troops.
In the North the
evacuation of Richmond is looked for between the 1st and 25th of April. They
may be fooled. But if we lose the Danville Road, it will only be a question of
time. Yet there will remain too great a breadth of territory for subjugation—if
the people choose to hold out, and soldiers can be made of negroes.
It is reported
(believed) that several determined assaults were made on our lines yesterday
evening and last night at Petersburg, and repulsed with slaughter; and that the
attack has been renewed to-day. Very heavy firing has been heard in that
direction. Gen. Lee announces no result yet.
We have 2,000,000
bread rations in the depots in North Carolina.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 461-2
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