The press here have no knowledge of the present locality of Gen.
Lee and his army. But a letter was received from Gen. L. at the department
yesterday, dated on this side of the Potomac, about eighteen miles above
Harper's Ferry.
It is stated that several hundred prisoners, taken at
Sharpsburg, are paroled prisoners captured at Harper's Ferry. If this be so
(and it is said they will be here to-night), I think it probable an example
will be made of them. This unpleasant duty may not be avoided by our
government.
After losing in killed and wounded, in the battle of Sharpsburg,
ten generals, and perhaps twenty thousand men, we hear no more of the advance of
the enemy; and Lee seems to be lying perdue, giving them an opportunity
to ruminate on the difficulties and dangers of “subjugation.”
I pray we may soon conquer a peace with the North; but then
I fear we shall have trouble among ourselves. Certainly there is danger, after
the war, that Virginia, and, perhaps, a sufficient number of the States to form
a new constitution, will meet in convention and form a new government.
Gen. Stark, of Mississippi, who fell at Sharpsburg, was an
acquaintance of mine. His daughters were educated with mine at St. Mary's Hall,
Burlington, N. J. — and were, indeed, under my care. Orphans now!
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 156
