A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital Part 52

A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital Part 52

JULY 6TH.--Yesterday evening we received Baltimore and New York papers with accounts (and loose ones) of the battle of Gettysburg. The Governor of Pennsylvania says it was "_indecisive_," which means, as we read it, that Meade's army was defeated.

The forces (Federal) are withdrawing from the neighborhood of this city, another indication that Lee has gained a victory. Dix has done but little damage. In retreating from Hanover County, he burnt the bridges to r.e.t.a.r.d pursuit.

The "War Department Guard" have returned, my son among them, sun-burnt and covered with dust. They were out five days and four nights, sleeping on the ground, without tents or blankets, and with little or nothing to eat, although the Commissary-General had abundance. The President, however, is better to-day, and able to get out of bed; but his health is apparently gone, and it may be doubtful whether he will ever be quite well again.

The Vice-President went down to the flag of truce boat on Sat.u.r.day, some say to Fortress Monroe, and others to Washington. It is surmised that he is authorized by the President to have a definitive understanding with the Federal authorities, whether or not private property is to be respected hereafter in the future progress of the war. If not, Gen. Lee will have orders to desolate the Northern States, where he has the power. Some, however, think he goes to Washington, to propose terms of peace, etc.

There is a rumor in the city, generally credited, that another battle was fought in Pennsylvania on Friday, and that the enemy was annihilated; these rumors sometimes a.s.sume form and substance, and this one, as if by some sort of magnetism, is credited by many. It is certain that Mr. Morris, superintendent of the telegraph office, has called upon his friends for the largest Confederate flag in the city to hang out of his window. He says nothing more; but he may have sent dispatches to the President, which he is not at liberty to divulge. There may be later news from Lee; or Vicksburg may be relieved; or New Orleans taken; or an armistice; or nothing.

I am glad my son's company were ordered in to-day; for, after a week of fine fair weather, it is now raining furiously. This would have prostrated the _tender_ boys with illness.

JULY 7TH.--It appears that the fighting near Gettysburg began on Wednesday, July 1st, continued until Sunday, the 5th, and perhaps longer. Up to Friday the Northern papers claim the advantage.

This morning at 1 P.M. another dispatch was received from the same (unofficial) source, stating that on Sunday the enemy made a stand, and A. P. Hill's corps fell back, followed by the enemy, when Longstreet's and Ewell's corps closed in their rear and captured 40,000 prisoners--who are now guarded by Pickett's division. It states that the prisoners refused to be paroled. This might possibly be true.

This account is credited. Col. Custis Lee, from the President's office, was in my office at half-past two P.M. to-day, and said nothing had been received from his father yet--but he did not deny that such accounts might be substantially true.

The President still keeps his eye on Gen. Beauregard. A paper from the general to Gen. Cooper, and, of course, referred to the President, in relation to the means of defense in his department, and a call for more guns, was sent back to-day, indorsed by the President, that by an examination of the report of Gen. Huger, he thought some discrepancies would appear in the statements of Gen. B. Thus, it would seem, from a repet.i.tion of similar imputations, the President has strong doubts of Gen. B.'s accuracy of statements. He is quick to detect discrepancies.

Gen. D. H. Hill sends in a characteristic letter. He says the rivers are all swollen, and he can make no movement to-day in pursuit of Dix's army of the Pamunky--or rather "the monkey army." He says that the Brooke Pike outer defenses are so defective in design, that a force there could be driven off in five minutes by the enemy's sharpshooters. He wants them amended, and a certain grove cut down--and recommends that engineers be put to work, with orders to leave their "kid gloves behind." He thinks more is to be apprehended from an attack on Petersburg than Richmond; and requests that Gen. Wise be ordered to march thither from Chaffin's Bluff, on the first alarm. He had not heard of the reported victory of Lee.

JULY 8TH.--I am glad to copy the following order of Gen. Lee:

"HEADQUARTERS ARMY NORTHERN VIRGINIA,

"CHAMBERSBURG, PA., June 27th, 1863.

"GENERAL ORDERS NO. 73.

"The commanding general has observed with marked satisfaction the conduct of the troops on the march, and confidently antic.i.p.ates results commensurate with the high spirit they have manifested. No troops could have displayed greater fort.i.tude, or better performed the arduous marches of the past ten days. Their conduct in other respects has, with few exceptions, been in keeping with their character as soldiers, and ent.i.tles them to approbation and praise.

"There have, however, been instances of forgetfulness on the part of some, that they have in keeping the yet unsullied reputation of the army, and that the duties exacted of us by civilization and Christianity are not less obligatory in the country of the enemy than in our own.

"The commanding general considers that no greater disgrace could befall the army, and through it, our whole people, than the perpetration of the barbarous outrages upon the innocent and defenseless, and the wanton destruction of private property, that have marked the course of the enemy in our own country. Such proceedings not only disgrace the perpetrators and all connected with them, but are subversive of the discipline and efficiency of the army and destructive of the ends of our present movements. It must be remembered that we make war only upon armed men, and that we cannot take vengeance for the wrongs our people have suffered without lowering ourselves in the eyes of all whose abhorrence has been excited by the atrocities of our enemy, and offending against Him to whom vengeance belongeth, without whose favor and support our efforts must all prove in vain.

"The commanding general, therefore, earnestly exhorts the troops to abstain with most scrupulous care from unnecessary or wanton injury to private property; and he enjoins upon all officers to arrest and bring to summary punishment all who shall in any way offend against the orders on this subject.

"R. E. LEE, _General_."

We have no additional news from the battle-field, except the following dispatch from Winchester:

"Our loss is estimated at 10,000. Between 3000 and 4000 of our wounded are arriving here to-night. Every preparation is being made to receive them.

"Gens. Scales and Pender have arrived here wounded, this evening. Gens.

Armistead, Barksdale, Garnett, and Kemper are reported killed. Gens.

Jones, Heth, Anderson, Pettigrew, Jenkins, Hampton, and Hood are reported wounded.

"The Yankees say they had only two corps in the fight on Wednesday, which was open field fighting. The whole of the Yankee force was engaged in the last three days' fighting. The number is estimated at 175,000.

"The hills around Gettysburg are said to be covered with the dead and wounded of the Yankee Army of the Potomac.

"The fighting of these four days is regarded as the severest of the war, and the slaughter unprecedented; especially is this so of the enemy.

"The New York and Pennsylvania papers are reported to have declared for peace."

But the absence of dispatches from Gen. Lee himself is beginning to create distrust, and doubts of decisive success at Gettysburg. His couriers may have been captured, or he may be delaying to announce something else he has in contemplation.

The enemy's flag of truce boat of yesterday refused to let us have a single paper in exchange for ours. This signifies something--I know not what. One of our exchanged officers says he heard a Northern officer say, at Fortress Monroe, that Meade's loss was, altogether, 60,000 men; but this is not, of course, reliable. Another officer said Lee was retiring, which is simply impossible, now, for the flood.

But, alas! we have sad tidings from the West. Gen. Johnston telegraphs from Jackson, Miss., that Vicksburg capitulated on the 4th inst. This is a terrible blow, and has produced much despondency.

The President, sick as he is, has directed the Secretary of War to send him copies of all the correspondence with Johnston and Bragg, etc., on the subject of the relief of Pemberton.

The Secretary of War has caught the prevailing alarm at the silence of Lee, and posted off to the President for a solution--but got none. If Lee falls back again, it will be the darkest day for the Confederacy we have yet seen.

JULY 9TH.--The sad tidings from Vicksburg have been confirmed by subsequent accounts. The number of men fit for duty on the day of capitulation was only a little upwards of 7000. Flour was selling at $400 per barrel! This betrays the extremity to which they had been reduced.

A dispatch to-day states that Grant, with 100,000 men (supposed), is marching on Jackson, to give Johnston battle. But Johnston will retire--he has not men enough to withstand him, until he leads him farther into the interior. If beaten, Mobile might fall.

We have no particulars yet--no comments of the Southern generals under Pemberton. But the fall of the place has cast a gloom over everything.

The fall of Vicksburg, alone, does not make this the darkest day of the war, as it is undoubtedly. The news from Lee's army is appalling. After the battle of Friday, the accounts from Martinsburg now state, he fell back toward Hagerstown, followed by the enemy, fighting but little on the way. Instead of 40,000 we have only 4000 prisoners. How many we have lost, we know not. The Potomac is, perhaps, too high for him to pa.s.s it--and there are probably 15,000 of the enemy immediately in his rear!

Such are the gloomy accounts from Martinsburg.

Our telegraph operators are great liars, or else they have been made the dupes of spies and traitors. That the cause has suffered much, and may be ruined by the toleration of disloyal persons within our lines, who have kept the enemy informed of all our movements, there can be no doubt.

The following is Gen. Johnston's dispatch announcing the fall of Vicksburg:

"JACKSON, July 7th, 1863.

"HON. J. A. SEDDON, SECRETARY OF WAR.

"Vicksburg capitulated on the 4th inst. The garrison was paroled, and are to be returned to our lines, the officers retaining their side-arms and personal baggage.

"This intelligence was brought by an officer who left the place on Sunday, the 5th.

"J. E. JOHNSTON, _General_."

We get nothing from Lee himself. Gen. Cooper, the Secretary of War, and Gen. Hill went to the President's office about one o'clock. They seemed in haste, and excited. The President, too, is sick, and ought not to attend to business. It will kill him, perhaps.

There is serious anxiety now for the fate of Richmond. Will Meade be here in a few weeks? Perhaps so--but, then, Lee may not have quite completed his raid beyond the Potomac.

The _Baltimore American_, no doubt in some trepidation for the quiescence of that city, gets up a most glowing account of "Meade's victory"--if it should, indeed, in the sequel, prove to have been one.

That Lee fell back, is true; but how many men were lost on each side in killed, wounded, and prisoners--how many guns were taken, and what may be the result of the operations in Pennsylvania and Maryland--of which we have as yet such imperfect accounts--will soon be known.

JULY 10TH.--This is the day of fate--and, without a cloud in the sky, the red sun, dimly seen through the mist (at noonday), casts a baleful light on the earth. It has been so for several days.

Early this morning a dispatch was received from Gen. Beauregard that the enemy attacked the forts in Charleston harbor, and, subsequently, that they were landing troops on Morris Island. Up to 3 o'clock we have no tidings of the result. But if Charleston falls, the government will be blamed for it--since, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Gen. B., the government, members of Congress, and prominent citizens, some 10,000 of his troops were away to save Vicksburg.