It was thawing all night, and there is a heavy fog this
morning. The snow will disappear in a few days.
A very large number of slaves, said to be nearly 40,000,
have been collected by the enemy on the Peninsula and at adjacent points, for
the purpose, it is supposed, of co-operating with Hooker's army in the next
attempt to capture Richmond.
The snow has laid an embargo on the usual slight supplies
brought to market, and all who had made no provision for such a contingency are
subsisting on very short-commons. Corn-meal is selling at from $6 to $8 per
bushel. Chickens $5 each. Turkeys $20. Turnip greens $8 per bushel. Bad bacon
$1.50 per pound. Bread 20 cts. per loaf. Flour $38 per barrel,—and other things
in proportion. There are some pale faces seen in the streets from deficiency of
food; but no beggars, no complaints. We are all in rags, especially our
underclothes. This for liberty!
The Northern journals say we have negro regiments on the
Rappahannock and in the West. This is utterly untrue. We have no armed slaves
to fight for us, nor do we fear a servile insurrection. We are at no loss,
however, to interpret the meaning of such demoniac misrepresentations. It is to
be seen of what value the negro regiments employed against us will be to the
invader.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 278
