Calm and warm; clouds and sunshine, without wind.
All quiet below. It is reported that one of our picket boats
in the James River deserted last night. It is said the crew overpowered the
officers and put them ashore, and then the boat rowed down to the enemy.
I am informed by Capt. Warner that there are 12,000 graves
of Federal prisoners at Andersonville, Ga. That climate is fatal to them; but
the government cannot feed them here, and the enemy won't exchange.
A dispatch from Gen. Bragg:
"AUGUSTA, November 27th, 1864.-We
have lost communication with the front. A small cavalry raid cut the Savannah
Railroad and telegraph, this morning, at Brier Creek, twenty-six miles from
here. Gen. Wheeler was, yesterday, confronting the enemy's infantry at
Sandersville. An officer, who left Macon on the 23d, states that one corps of
the enemy was still confronting us there; our force not exceeding 5000, nearly
all militia. The force here, including all available reserves, does not exceed
6000 effectives: only one battery. I am not yet advised from Charleston and
Savannah, but know the means are small. Neither point could long resist the
enemy's whole force; hence my remarks about concentration. Gen. Hardee has gone
to Savannah. Wheeler will continue to confront and harass the enemy. I have not
learned the strength of his command. He estimates the enemy's force at about
30,000."
Gen. Beauregard has published a short proclamation, saying he
will soon arrive to the rescue in Georgia. Here, then, will be war between the
two B.'s—Bragg and Beauregard; and the President will be as busy as a bee. Meantime,
Sherman may possess the land at pleasure.
A long letter (twenty-five pages) from Gov. Brown, Georgia,
came to hand to-day, combating, in replication, one from the Secretary relating
to calling out all the militia of Georgia, etc. State rights and the Constitution are discussed in extenso, and many a hard blow is aimed at the President. The
Governor regards the Secretary as merely the instrument or head clerk of the
President, whom he sneers at occasionally. But he denounces as vile the
President himself, and refuses to obey
the call[.] What he will do with the militia must soon be known, for
Sherman is there.
A great stir among the officers on bureau and department duty
in Richmond! Congress has called on the President for a list of all
commissioned officers here, their ages, etc., and how many of them are fit for
duty in the field. This will be dodged, of course, if possible.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel
War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
340-1