The last day of the
year. Snowing and wet. Gen. H. Cobb writes that the existing Conscription
Bureau is a failure so far as Georgia, Alabama, etc. are concerned, and can
never put the men in the field.
Wm. Johnston,
president of the Charlotte (N. C.) and South Carolina Railroad, suggests the
construction, immediately, of a railroad from Columbia, S. C., to Augusta, Ga.,
which might be easily accomplished by April or May. It would take that length
of time for the government to "consider of it." It will lose two
railroads before it will order the building of one.
There is supposed to
be a conspiracy on foot to transfer some of the powers of the Executive to Gen.
Lee. It can only be done by revolution, and the overthrow of the
Constitution. Nevertheless, it is believed many executive officers, some
high in position, favor the scheme.
To-morrow Gen. Lee's
army is to be feasted with turkeys, etc. contributed by the country, if the
enemy will permit them to dine without molestation. The enemy are kept fully
informed of everything transpiring here, thanks to the vigilance of the Provost
Marshal, detectives, etc. etc.
Gen. Cobb writes
that he is arresting the men who remained in Atlanta during its occupation by
Sherman, and subjecting themselves to suspicion, etc. Better march the men we
have against Sherman now, who is still in Georgia!
Gen. Lee writes that
Grant is concentrating (probably for an attack on Richmond), bringing another
corps from the Valley; and if the local troops are brought in, he does not know
how to replace them. His army diminishes, rather than increases, under the
manipulations of the Bureau of Conscription. It is a dark and dreary hour, when
Lee is so despondent!
Senator Henry writes
that any delay in impressing the railroad from Danville to Greensborough will
be fatal.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 370-1
