Bright and cold. A resolution passed Congress, calling on
the President to report the number of men of conscript age removed from the
Quartermaster's and Commissary's Departments, in compliance with the act of
last session. The Commissary-General, in response, refers only to clerks—none
of whom, however, it seems have been removed.
Capt. Alexander, an officer under Gen. Winder, in charge or
Castle Thunder (prison), has been relieved and arrested for malfeasance, etc.
Gen. C. J. McRae, charged with the investigation of the
accounts of Isaacs, Campbell & Co., London, with Major Huse, the purchasing
agent of Col. J. Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance, reports irregularities,
overcharges, etc., and recommends retention of gold and cotton in this country
belonging to I., C. & Co.
Mr. ——— informed me to-day that he signed a contract with the
Commissary-General last night to furnish meat on the Mississippi in Tennessee,
in exchange for cotton. He told me that the proposition was made by the Federal
officers, and will have their connivance, if not the connivance of Federal
functionaries in Washington, interested in the speculation. Lieut.-Col. Ruffin
prefers trading with the enemy at New Orleans.
It is rumored that Mr. Seddon will resign, and be succeeded
by Gov. Letcher; notwithstanding Hon. James Lyons asserted in public (and it
appears in the Examiner to-day) that Gov. L. told Gen. J. R. Anderson
last year, subsequent to the fall of Donelson, "he was still in favor of
the Union."
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
117
