Cloudy and cool.
A dispatch from the
West states that the enemy have made a heavy raid from Bean's Station, Ky.,
cutting the railroad between Abingdon and Bristol, destroying government
stores, engines, etc. Breckinridge and Vaughan, I suppose, have been ordered
away. Dr. Morris, Telegraph Superintendent, wants to know of the Secretary if
this news shall be allowed to go to the press.
The President is
ill, some say very ill, but I saw indorsements with his own hand on the 13th
(day before yesterday).
Our affairs seem in
a bad train. But many have unlimited confidence in Gen. Beauregard, who
commands in South Carolina and Georgia, and all repose implicit trust in Lee.
A writer in the
Sentinel suggests that if we should be hard pressed, the States ought to repeal
the old Declaration of Independence, and voluntarily revert to their original
proprietors― England, France, and Spain, and by them be protected from the
North, etc. Ill-timed and injurious publication!
A letter from G. N.
Sanders, Montreal, Canada E., asks copies of orders (to be certified by
Secretary of War) commanding the raid into Vermont, the burning, pillaging,
etc., to save Lieut. Young's life. I doubt if such written orders are in
existence—but no matter.
It is said the enemy
have captured Fort McAlister, Savannah Harbor.
Mr. Hunter is very
solicitous about the President's health-said to be an affection of the head;
but the Vice-President has taken his seat in the Senate.
It was rumored
yesterday that the President would surely die, an idle rumor, perhaps. I hope
it is not a disease of the brain, and incurable.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 355
