Rained yesterday and
last night. Clear and windy to-day.
It is said the
Blairs (who have been looked for on some sort of mission) turned back after
arriving in the camp of Gen. Grant. Of course they could not treat with this
government, under existing circumstances. The President and his cabinet could
not be expected to listen to such proposals as they might be authorized to
tender.
Butler's canal is
said to be completed, and probably operations will soon be recommenced in this
vicinity.
Congress seems to be
doing little or nothing; but before it adjourns it is supposed it will, as
usual, pass the measures dictated by the President. How insignificant a
legislative body becomes when it is not independent. The Confederate States
Congress will not live in history, for it never really existed at all, but has
always been merely a body of subservient men, registering the decrees of the
Executive. Even Mr. Miles, of South Carolina, before introducing a bill, sends
it to this department for approval or rejection.
Detailed soldiers
here are restricted in their rations this month to 31 pounds of meal, 21 pounds
of salt beef, etc. The commissary agent, Mr. Wilson, thinks no more "beef
shanks" can be sold. I have been living on them!
An order has been issued
that all detailed men in the bureaus (able-bodied) must go into Gen. Lee's
army; and the local defense troops will not be called out again except in the
last necessity, and then only during the emergency. I have not seen it, but
believe Gen. Lee has some such understanding with the President.
Mayor Arnold, and
other rich citizens of Savannah, have held a meeting (Union), and called upon
Gov. Brown to assemble a State Convention, etc.
Mr. Hunter followed
Judge Campbell into his office this morning (a second visit), as if there were
any more news. The judge gravely beckoned him into the office. I was out; so
there must be news, when Mr. H. (so fat) is on the qui vive.
Gen. Beauregard has
been ordered to the West to take command of Hood's army.
The Secretary of War
has ordered Col. Bayne to have as much cotton as possible east of Branchville,
S. C.
The farmers down the
river report that Grant is sending off large bodies of troops—so the Secretary
says in a letter to Gen. Lee.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 379-80
