A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital Part 112

A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital Part 112

I append the result of my gardening this year. The dry weather in May and June injured the crop, or the amount would have been much larger.

Total valuation, at market prices, $347.

OCTOBER 25TH.--Bright and beautiful morning.

All quiet below. Mr. McRae has been permitted by Gen. Butler to return again to the city to await his exchange, pledged not to bear arms, etc.

Many more of the government employees, forced into the trenches, would be happy to be in the same predicament. A great many are deserting under a deliberate conviction that their rights have been despotically invaded by the government; and that this government is, and is likely to be, as tyrannous as Lincoln's. No doubt many give valuable information to the enemy.

The Superintendent of the Bureau of Conscription is at open war with the General of Reserves in Virginia, and confusion is likely to be worse confounded.

Gen. Cooper, A. and I. General (Pennsylvanian), suggests to the President the appointment of Gen. Lovell to the command of all the prisons containing Federal captives. Gen. Lovell, too, is a Northern man.

OCTOBER 26TH.--Clear and frosty. Quiet below.

Gen. W. M. Gardner (in Gen. Winder's place here) has just got from Judge Campbell pa.s.sports for his cousin, Mary E. Gardner, and for his brother-in-law F. M. White, to go to Memphis, Tenn., where they mean to reside.

Mr. Benjamin publishes a copy of a dispatch to Mr. Mason, in London, for publication there, showing that if the United States continue the war, she will be unable to pay her debts abroad, and therefore foreigners ought not to lend her any more money, or they may be ruined. This from a Secretary of State! It may be an electioneering card in the United States, and it may reconcile some of our members of Congress to the inc.u.mbency of Mr. B. in a sinecure position.

A friend of Mr. Seddon, near Vicksburg, writes for permission to sell thirty bales of cotton--$20,000 worth--to the enemy. He says Mr.

Seddon's estate, on the Sunflower, has not been destroyed by the enemy.

That's fortunate, for other places have been utterly ruined.

Investigations going on in the courts show that during Gen. Winder's "Reign of Terror," pa.s.sports sold for $2000. Some outside party negotiated the business and procured the pa.s.sport.

Gen. Early has issued an address to his army, reproaching it for having victory wrested out of its hands by a criminal indulgence in the plunder found in the camps captured from the enemy. He hopes they will retrieve everything in the next battle.

Governor Smith's exemptions of magistrates, deputy sheriffs, clerks, and constables, to-day, 56.

OCTOBER 27TH.--Slightly hazy and sunshine.

Quiet, save aimless and bootless sh.e.l.ling and picket firing along the lines on the south side of the river.

Hon. Geo. Davis, Attorney-General, to whom was referred the question of the const.i.tutionality of the purposed removal from office of clerks appointed to fill places specifically created by act of Congress previous to the enactment of the Conscript law, without there being alleged against them any misconduct, inefficiency, dishonesty, etc., has reported that as several subsequent acts of Congress already indicate an intention to put all capable of bearing arms in the army, it is the duty of the President and the Secretary of War _to carry out the intentions of Congress_, leaving the const.i.tutional question to the decision of the courts! The Const.i.tution they swore upon the holy, etc. to support!

Thus, a refugee must either starve his wife and children by relinquishing office, or be disgraced by appealing to the courts!

It is reported that 30,000 of the enemy crossed to this side of the river last night, and that fighting has began at 10 A.M.; but I hear nothing save an occasional report of cannon.

It is said brisk skirmishing is now (12 M.) going on along the lines.

Gen. Cooper and Mr. Secretary Seddon wants Brig.-Gen. R. (Charleston) relieved, for insulting a lady in one of his fits of drunkenness. The President is reluctant to consent.

We have intelligence to-day of gun-boats and transports ascending the Rappahannock River. Another squall from that quarter!

Three P.M. The cannonading has grown quick and terrific along the lines, below the city (north side), with occasional discharges nearer, and farther to the left (north), as if the enemy were attempting to flank our army.

The sounds are very distinctly heard, the weather being damp and the wind from the southeast. We can distinguish the bursting of the sh.e.l.l quickly after the discharge of the cannon.

The firing ceased at dark. It rains hard and steadily, now. What a life!

what suffering, in mud and water, without tents (in the trenches), burdened with wet blankets, and perhaps without food! To-morrow, in all probability, a battle will be fought.

Gen. Lee, for several weeks, as if aware of the impending operations in this vicinity, has been on this side of the river, superintending in person the fortifications multiplied everywhere for the defense of the city, while reinforcements have been pouring in by thousands. It must be a fearful struggle, if Gen. Grant really intends to make another effort to capture Richmond by a.s.sault! Our works, mostly made by the negroes, under the direction of skillful engineers, must be nearly impregnable, and the attempt to take them will involve a prodigious expenditure of blood.

OCTOBER 28TH.--Rained all night, but bright this morning.

We have no clear account yet of the fighting yesterday; but we know the enemy was repulsed on this side of the river. It is thought that the operations on the south side were of greater magnitude, where we lost a brigadier-general (Dearing) of cavalry. We shall know all in a few days.

The fighting was not resumed this morning.

It is rumored that Mr. Seddon will resign, and be succeeded by Gen.

Kemper. I am incredulous.

The "dog-catchers," as the guards are called, are out again, arresting able-bodied men (and sometimes others) in the streets, and locking them up until they can be sent to the front. There must be extraordinary danger antic.i.p.ated by the authorities to induce a resort to so extreme a measure.

Two P.M. No news from the field---no cannon heard to-day.

Large amounts of cloth from Europe for the army have recently arrived at Wilmington, N. C.; but the speculators occupy so much s.p.a.ce in the cars, that transportation cannot be had for it. The poor soldiers are likely to suffer in consequence of this neglect of duty on the part of the government.

OCTOBER 29TH.--Clear and pleasant.

We are beginning to get authentic accounts of the operations on Thursday; and yet, from the newspaper publications, we see that the government has withheld one of Gen. Lee's dispatches from publication.

Altogether, it must be regarded as a decisive failure on the part of the enemy to obtain any lodgment nearer to the objective point; while his loss was perhaps two to our one.

A letter from Gen. Howell Cobb, Macon, Ga., in reply to one from the Secretary by the President's direction, states that Gen. Beauregard, in arranging difficulties with Gov. Brown, did not compromise the dignity or interests of the Confederate States Government, or violate any law.

It is now said Sheridan is retreating toward the Potomac, followed by Early. Some 500 more recruits for Early left Richmond yesterday. This would indicate that Gen. Lee has men enough here.

The President suggests that confidential inspectors be sent to ascertain whether Gen. Early's army has lost confidence in him. Both Gen. Lee and the President are satisfied that the charges of drunkenness against Gen.

E. merit no attention. The Secretary had indorsed on a paper (referred by him to the President) that he shared the belief in the "want of confidence," etc.--and no doubt would have him removed.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30TH.--Bright and beautiful.

Some firing was heard early this morning on the Darbytown road, or in that direction; but it soon ceased, and no fighting of moment is antic.i.p.ated to-day, for Gen. Longstreet is in the city.

My son Thomas drew a month's rations yesterday, being detailed for clerical service with Gen. Kemper. He got 35 pounds of flour (market value $70), 31 pounds of beef ($100.75), 3 pounds of rice ($6), one sixth of a cord of wood ($13.33), salt ($2), tobacco ($5), vinegar ($3)--making $200 per month; clothing furnished by government,$500 per annum; cash, $18 per month; $4 per day extra, and $40 per month for quarters; or $5000 per annum. Custis and I get $4000 each--making in all $13,000! Yet we cannot subsist and clothe the family; for, alas, the paper money is $30 for one in specie!

The steamers have brought into Wilmington immense amounts of quartermaster stores, and perhaps our armies are the best clad in the world. If the spirit of speculation be laid, and all the men and resources of the country be devoted to defense (as seems now to be the intention), the United States could never find men and material sufficient for our subjugation. We could maintain the war for an indefinite period, unless, indeed, fatal dissensions should spring up among ourselves.

OCTOBER 31ST.--Bright. Tom's rations came in--worth $200--for a month.

Gen. Lee writes that it is necessary for the gun-boats to guard the river as far below Chaffin's Bluffs as possible, to prevent the enemy from throwing a force to the south bank in the rear of Gen. Pickett's lines; for then Gen. P. must withdraw his forces, and the abandonment of Petersburg will follow, "with its railroad connections, throwing the whole army back to the defense of Richmond. I should regard this as a great disaster, and as seriously endangering the safety of the city. We should not only lose a large section of country from which our position enables us to draw supplies, but the enemy would be brought nearer to the only remaining railway communication between Richmond and the South.

It would make the tenure of the city depend upon our ability to hold this long line of communication against the largely superior force of the enemy, and I think would greatly diminish the prospects of successful defense." He suggests that more men and small boats be put in the river to prevent the enemy from placing torpedoes in the rear of the iron-clads, when on duty down the river at night.

J. H. Reagan, Postmaster-General, has written a furious letter to the Secretary, complaining of incivility on the part of Mr. Wilson, Commissary Agent to issue beef in Richmond. Judge R. went there to draw the beef ration for Col. Lubbock, one of the President's aid-de-camps (late Governor of Texas). He says he is able-bodied and ought to be in the army. Mr. Wilson sends in certificates of two men who were present, contradicting the judge's statement of the language used by Mr. W. The Secretary has not yet acted in the case.

Beverly Tucker is in Canada, and has made a contract for the Confederate States Government with ------ & Co., of New York, to deliver bacon for cotton, pound for pound. It was made by authority of the Secretary of War, certified to by Hon. C. C. Clay and J. Thompson, both in Canada.

The Secretary of the Treasury don't like it.

It is reported that after the success reported by Gen. Lee, Early was _again_ defeated.