Bright and clear.
I add a few lines to
my Diary. It was whispered, yesterday, that President Lincoln had been
assassinated! I met Gen. Duff Green, in the afternoon, who assured me there
could be no doubt of it. Still, supposing it might be an April hoax, I inquired
at the headquarters of Gen. Ord, and was told it was true. I cautioned those I
met to manifest no feeling, as the occurrence might be a calamity for the
South; and possibly the Federal soldiers, supposing the deed to have been done
by a Southern man, might become uncontrollable and perpetrate deeds of horror
on the unarmed people.
After agreeing to
meet Gen. Green this morning at the Provost Marshal's office, and unite with
him in an attempt to procure the liberation of Capt. Warner, I returned home;
and saw, on the way, Gen. Ord and his staff riding out toward Camp Lee, with no
manifestations of excitement or grief on their countenances.
Upon going down town
this morning, every one was speaking of the death of Lincoln, and the Whig was
in mourning.
President Lincoln
was killed by Booth (Jno. Wilkes), an actor. I suppose his purpose is to live
in history as the slayer of a tyrant; thinking to make the leading character in
a tragedy, and have his performance acted by others on the stage.
I see no grief on
the faces of either officers or men of the Federal army.
R. A. Pryor and
Judge W. T. Joynes have called a meeting in Petersburg, to lament the calamity
entailed by the assassination.
I got passports
to-day for myself and family to the Eastern Shore, taking no oath. We know not
when we shall leave.
I never swore
allegiance to the Confederate States Government, but was true to it.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 479-80
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