The breach seems to
widen between the President and Congress, especially the Senate. A majority of
the Committee on Military Affairs have reported that Col. A. C. Myers (relieved
last August) is still the Quartermaster-General of the armies, and that Gen.
Lawton, who has been acting as Quartermaster-General since then, is not the duly
authorized Quartermaster-General: not having given bond, and his appointment
not having been consented to by the Senate. They say all the hundreds of
millions disbursed by his direction have been expended in violation of law.
For the last few
nights Col. Browne, one of the President's A. D. C.'s, and an unnaturalized
Englishman, has ordered a guard (department clerks) to protect the President.
Capt. Manico (an Englishman) ordered my son Custis to go on guard to-night; but
I obtained from the Secretary a countermand of the order, and also an exemption
from drills, etc. It will not do for him to neglect his night-school, else we
shall starve.
I noticed, to-day,
eight slaughtered deer in one shop; and they are seen hanging at the doors in
every street. The price is $3 per pound. Wild turkies, geese, ducks,
partridges, etc. are also exposed for sale, at enormous prices, and may
mitigate the famine now upon us. The war has caused an enormous increase of
wild game. But ammunition is difficult to be obtained. I see some perch, chubb,
and other fish, but all are selling at famine prices.
The weather is
charming, which is something in the item of fuel. I sowed a bed of early York
cabbage, to-day, in a sheltered part of the garden, and I planted twenty-four
grains of early-sweet corn, some cabbage seed, tomatoes, beets, and egg-plants
in my little hotbed—a flour barrel sawed in two, which I can bring into the
house when the weather is cold. I pray God the season may continue mild, else
there must be much suffering. And yet no beggars are seen in the streets. What
another month will develope, I know not; the fortitude of the people, so far,
is wonderful.
Major-Gen. Sam.
Jones, Dublin, Va., is at loggerheads with Lieut.-Gen. Longstreet about some
regiments the latter keeps in East Tennessee. Gen. J. says Averill is preparing
to make another raid on the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, the saltworks, the
mines, etc.; and if he is charged with the defense, he must have at least all
his regiments. He gets his orders from Gen. Cooper, A. and I. G., who will
probably give him what he wants.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 134-5
