A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital Part 137

A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital Part 137

MARCH 3D.--Raining and cold. This morning there was another arrival of our prisoners on parole, and not yet exchanged. Many thousands have arrived this week, and many more are on the way. How shall we feed them?

Will _they_ compel the evacuation of the city? I hope not. Capt. Warner, Commissary-General, is here again; and if a.s.signed to duty, has sufficient business qualifications to collect supplies.

Thank G.o.d, I have some 300 pounds of flour and half that amount of meal--bread rations for my family, seven in number, for more than two months! I have but 7-1/2 pounds of meat; but we can live without it, as we have often done. I have a bushel of peas also, and coal and wood for a month. This is a guarantee against immediate starvation, should the famine become more rigorous, upon which we may felicitate ourselves.

Our nominal income has been increased; amounting now to some $16,000 in paper--less than $300 in specie. But, for the next six months (if we can stay here), our rent will be only $75 per month--a little over one dollar; and servant hire, $40--less than eighty cents.

It is rumored that Gen. Early has been beaten again at Waynesborough, and that the enemy have reached _Charlottesville_ for the first time.

Thus it seems our downward career continues. We _must_ have a victory soon, else Virginia is irretrievably lost.

Two P.M. The wind has shifted to the south; warm showers.

Three P.M. It is said they are fighting at Gordonsville; whether or not the enemy have Charlottesville is therefore uncertain. I presume it is an advance of Sheridan's cavalry whom our troops have engaged at Gordonsville.

MARCH 4TH.--Raining hard, and warm. We have vague reports of Early's defeat in the Valley by an overwhelming force; and the gloom and despondency among the people are in accordance with the hue of the constantly-occurring disasters.

Brig.-Gen. J. Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance, has been rebuked by Gen. Lee for constantly striving to get mechanics out of the service. Gen. Lee says the time has arrived when the necessity of having able-bodied men in the field is paramount to all other considerations.

Brig.-Gen. Preston (Bureau of Conscription) takes issue with Gen. Lee on the best mode of sending back deserters to the field. He says there are at this time 100,000 _deserters_!

C. Lamar, Bath, S. C, writes to the President that ----, a bonded farmer, secretly removed his meat and then burnt his smoke-house, conveying the impression that all his meat was destroyed. The President sends this to the Secretary of War with the following indors.e.m.e.nt: "For attention--this example shows the vice of cla.s.s exemption, as well as the practices resorted to to avoid yielding supplies to the government."

The Legislature of North Carolina has pa.s.sed resolutions exempting millers, blacksmith, etc.--in contravention of the act of Congress--and directing Gov. Vance to correspond with the Secretary of War on the subject. This bears an ugly aspect.

Gen. Early's little army is scattered to the winds. Charlottesville has been in possession of the enemy, but at last accounts Gen. Rosser, in Sheridan's rear, held it. Sheridan advanced to Scottsville; and is no doubt still advancing. Lynchburg is rendered unsafe; and yet some of the bureaus are packing up and preparing to send the archives thither. They would probably fall into the hands of the enemy.

Gen. Lee is in the city--where there is much confusion of tongues--and impatient, waiting for the next scene of the drama. If there was to be concert of action between Grant and Sheridan, probably the copious rains have prevented it.

Two P.M. There is almost a panic among officials here who have their families with them, under the belief that the city may be suddenly evacuated, and the impossibility of getting transportation. I do not share the belief--that is, that the event is likely to occur immediately; but if it should occur, I know my wife and children will remain--for a season. We must "pray that our flight be not in the winter."

Gen. Lee was closeted with the Secretary of War several hours to-day. It is reported that Gen. L.'s family are preparing to leave the city.

MARCH 5TH.--Bright and cool; some frost this morning.

I saw an officer yesterday from Early's command. He said the enemy entered Charlottesville on Friday at half-past two o'clock P.M., between 2000 and 3000 strong, cavalry, and had made no advance at the latest accounts. He says Gen. Early, when last seen, was flying, and pursued by some fifteen well-mounted Federals, only fifty paces in his rear. The general being a large heavy man, and badly mounted, was undoubtedly captured. He intimated that Early's _army_ consisted of only about 1000 men! Whether he had more elsewhere, I was unable to learn. I have not heard of any destruction of property by the enemy.

There is still an accredited rumor of the defeat of Sherman. Perhaps he may have been checked, and turned toward his supplies on the coast.

I learn by a paper from Gen. Gorgas, Chief of Ordnance, that the machinery of the workshops here is being moved to Danville, Salisbury, and other places in North Carolina. He recommends that transportation be given the families of the operatives; and that houses be built for them, with permission to buy subsistence at government prices, for twelve months, that the mechanics may be contented and kept from deserting.

This would rid the city of some thousands of its population, and be some measure of relief to those that remain. But how long will we be allowed to remain? All depends upon the operations in the field during the next few weeks--and these may depend upon the wisdom of those in possession of the government, which is now at a discount.

The Secretary of the Treasury is selling gold for Confederate States notes for reissue to meet pressing demands; the machinery for manufacturing paper money having just at present no certain abiding place. The government gives $1 of gold for sixty of its own paper; but were it to cease selling gold, it would command $100 for $1.

MARCH 6TH.--A bright frosty morning.

This day I am fifty-five years of age.

It is now reported that Gen. Early made his escape, and that most of his men have straggled into this city.

One body of Sheridan's men are said to have been at Gordonsville yesterday, coming hitherward, while another were near Scottsville, aiming for the South Side Railroad.

The Adjutant-General, having granted furloughs to the returned prisoners two days ago, to-day revokes them. Will such vacillating policy conciliate the troops, and incite them to heroic deeds?

The President and his wife were at church yesterday; so they have not left the city; but Gen. Lee's family, it is rumored, are packing up to leave.

I bought a quarter of a cord of oak wood this morning to mix with the green pine, and paid $55 for it.

Gen. Early's cavalry, being mostly men of property, were two-thirds of them on furlough or detail, when the enemy advanced on Charlottesville; and the infantry, being poor, with no means either to bribe the authorities, to fee members of Congress, or to aid their suffering families, declined to fight in defense of the property of their rich and _absent_ neighbors! We lost four guns beyond Charlottesville, and our forces were completely routed.

There are rumors to-day that a column of the enemy's cavalry has reached Hanover County. Gen. R. E. Lee has ordered Major-Gen. Fitz Lee's cavalry to march against them.

Twelve M. They are bringing boxes to the War Office, to pack up the archives. This certainly indicates a sudden removal in an emergency. It is not understood whether they go to Danville or to Lynchburg; that may depend upon _Grant's_ movements. It may, however, be Lee's purpose to _attack_ Grant; meantime preparing to fall back in the event of losing the day.

Four days hence we have a day of fasting, etc., appointed by the President; and I understand there are but _three_ day's rations for the army--a nice calculation.

Gen. Johnston telegraphs the Secretary that his army must suffer, if not allowed to get commissary stores in the North Carolina depots. The Secretary replies that of course his army must be fed, but hopes he can buy enough, etc., leaving the stores already collected for Lee's army, _which is in great straits_.

MARCH 7TH.--Bright and frosty.

Yesterday we had no certain accounts of the movements of Sheridan. His force was said to be near Charlottesville--at Keswich. Fitz Lee's cavalry and Pickett's infantry were sent in that direction. Not a word has yet appeared in the Richmond papers concerning this movement from the Valley--the papers being read daily in the enemy's camp below. We hear of no corresponding movement on the part of Grant; and perhaps there was none.

Preparations to evacuate the city are still being made with due diligence. If these indications do not suffice to bring the speculators into the ranks to defend their own property (they have no honor, of course), the city and the State are lost; and the property owners will deserve their fate. The extortioners ought to be hung, besides losing their property. This would be a very popular act on the part of the conquerors.

On the 4th inst., the day of inauguration at Washington, the troops (Federal) near Petersburg got drunk, and proposed an hour's truce to have a friendly talk. It was refused.

I met my friend Brooks to-day, just from Georgia, in a pucker. He says the people there are for reunion. Mr. B. rented his house to Secretary Trenholm for $15,000--furnished. It would now bring $30,000. But he is now running after teams to save his tobacco--_he_ a speculator!

A letter was received yesterday from ----, Selma accusing the a.s.sistant Secretary of War, Judge Campbell, his brother-in-law, Judge Goldthwait, and Judge Parsons, of Alabama, with disloyalty, and says Judge C. is about to issue pa.s.sports for delegates to go to the _Chicago_ Convention, soon to a.s.semble, etc. etc. He says Judge C. is the Fouche of the South. The letter is dated August 23d, 1864, and the President _now_ sends it to the Secretary "for his information."

Judge Campbell has exercised almost exclusive control of the conscription and the pa.s.sport business of the government since his appointment. The President and Secretary must attach some importance to the communication of Mr. ----, the first for sending over the letter at this juncture--the latter, for having just called in Lieut.-Col. Melton, A. A. G., who is a.s.signed a position in his office, and is now superintending the business of _pa.s.sports_. This arrangement also cuts the earth under the feet of Mr. Kean, Chief of the Bureau of War.

The raid of Sheridan has caused some speculators to send their surplus flour into the city for sale. Some sold for $700 per barrel to-day, a decline of $50.

D. H. London says the enemy captured the tobacco at Hamilton's Crossing (near Fredericksburg) this morning. I doubt it, but would not deplore it, as it belongs to speculators, sent thither for barter with the enemy. No doubt many articles will decline in price--the owners fearing the coming of the enemy.

The packing up of the archives goes on, with directions to be as quiet as possible, so as "not to alarm the people." A large per cent. of the population would behold the exodus with pleasure!

MARCH 8TH.--Damp and foggy. We have no military news yet--9 A.M.

President Lincoln's short inaugural message, or homily, or sermon, has been received. It is filled with texts from the Bible. He says both sides pray to the same G.o.d for aid--one upholding and the other destroying African slavery. If slavery be an offense,--and woe shall fall upon those by whom offenses come,--perhaps not only all the slaves will be lost, but all the acc.u.mulated products of their labor be swept away. In short, he "quotes Scripture for the deed" quite as fluently as our President; and since both Presidents resort to religious justification, it may be feared the war is about to a.s.sume a more sanguinary aspect and a more cruel nature than ever before. G.o.d help us!

The history of man, even in the Bible, is but a series of b.l.o.o.d.y wars.

It must be thus to make us appreciate the blessings of peace, and to bow in humble adoration of the great Father of all. The Garden of Eden could not yield contentment to man, nor heaven satisfy all the angels.

It is said the enemy have left Fredericksburg--bought all the tobacco, I suppose.

To-day the _State_ made distribution in this city of cotton cloth, three yards to each member of a family, at $5.50 for 7-8 and $6.25 for 4-4 width. The State paid about $3 per yard for it, and the profits make a portion of its revenue, or, perhaps, the revenue of its _officers_ and _agents_. Nevertheless, there was a large crowd, and one man fainted.

The shops sell at $12 to $15 per yard.

Raining at 12 M. All quiet below.