It is clear and cold. The boat in which my son and the
battalion of clerks went down the river yesterday, sunk, from being overloaded,
just as it got to the landing. It is said some of the boys had to wade ashore;
but none were lost— thank God!
This morning early, Lee and Meade confronted each other in
battle array, and no one doubts a battle is in progress to day this side of the
Rapidan. Lee is outnumbered some two to one, but Meade has a swollen river in
his rear. It is an awful moment.
I took my remaining son to the office this morning, to aid
me in Custis's absence.
At night. Nothing has yet been heard from the battle, if indeed
it occurred to-day. It is said that Meade is ordered to fight. They know
at Washington it is too late in the season, in the event of Meade's defeat, for
Lee to menace that city, or to invade Pennsylvania. It is a desperate effort to
crush the “rebellion,” as they suppose, by advancing all their armies. And
indeed it seems that Meade is quite as near to Richmond as Lee; for he seems to
be below the latter on the Rappahannock, with his back to Fredericksburg, and
Lee's face toward it. If Meade should gain the victory, he might possibly cut
off Lee from this city. Nevertheless, these positions are the result of Lee's
manoeuvres, and it is to be supposed he understands his business. He has no
fear of Meade's advance in this direction with his communications cut behind
him.
Captain Warner has sold me two pieces of bacon again, out of
his own smoke-house, at $1 per pound, while it is selling in the market at
$3.50 per pound—and he has given us another bushel of sweet potatoes. Had it
not been for this kind friend, my little revenue would not have sufficed for
subsistence.
While the soldiers are famishing for food, what is called “red
tapeism” prevents the consummation of contracts to supply them. Captains
Montgomery and Leathers, old steamboat captains, with ample capital, and owning
the only steamboats in certain waters of Florida, have just proposed to furnish
the government with a million pounds salt beef, on the main line of railroad in
Florida, at a reduced price. The cattle are exposed to incursions of the enemy,
and have to be transported by steamboats. They endeavored to make a proposal
directly to the Secretary, which was so expressed in the communication I
prepared for them—as they were unwilling to treat with Col. Northrop, the
Commissary-General, who has become extremely obnoxious. But it was intercepted,
and referred to the Commissary-General. Learning this, the captains abandoned
their purpose and left the city—the Secretary never having seen their proposal.
Our soldiers will not get the beef, and probably the enemy will.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p.
108-9
