11th—In camp all day. Beautiful and clear but windy. Heavy firing towards night some twelve or twenty miles to the southwest.
McClellan relieved, and to-day Burnside succeeds. Surely,
“De kingdom’s comin’,
And de day ob jubelo.”
Some of the army depressed to-night in consequence of the change. Natural enough, but it will be all right in a few days, or I am no prophet.
To all the claims to greatness for Gen. McClellan, the question will obtrude: With the best army on the continent, of two hundred thousand men, what has he accomplished in the fifteen months during which he has been in command? “Whilst on the other hand, another question comes up: Why, if he has accomplished nothing, and is not a great man, is he the most popular man, with his army, in the United States? My own solution is this: There is a tendency in armies, to love and venerate their Commander. General McClellan has been at the head of the armies. In addition, his friends hold him up as a political aspirant. He, then, who shall accomplish most for McClellan’s popularity, stands first in the list of promotions! Every Major and Brigadier General feels it to be his own personal interest to eulogise McClellan, and the struggle amongst his followers, is not for who shall distinguish himself most in the service of his country, but who shall stand highest on the list of friends to him who is soon to wield both the civil and military power of the country. The soldiers know nothing against him, because they know nothing of him. He is rarely seen by them, and the encomiums of his sycophantic eulogists, such as Porter, Franklin, Hancock, ” et id omne genus conspiratorum,” is taken as true, whilst such men as Kearney, Reno, Couch and Burnside, must be sacrificed for being in the way of others, who substitute intrigue for genius.
November 11th. The Admiral left the ship to go on board the English sloop-of-war Rinaldo. At noon the Englishman manned yards for Rear Admiral Farragut.
November 11—This morning we started to Linden station on the Manassas Gap Railroad, seven miles below Front Royal. The country we passed through to-day after we crossed the Shenandoah River is poor and the road rough. We passed some of General Ewell’s men that had been on the Blue Ridge destroying the railroad. We saw their work of destruction all along the road up the western side of the ridge. They burnt the ties and crooked the rails by heating them on a pile of burning ties. Camped to-night on the Blue Ridge within one mile of Linden.
Tuesday, 11th—The same old thing over. We are still in camp and on short rations. The quartermaster tells us to be patient three or four days more, when he expects to have full rations for us. I hunted about an hour through a ten-acre cornfield, thinking I might find an ear of corn and parch it to help relieve my hunger, but the field had been picked over so thoroughly that I did not even find a nubbin.
Tuesday, 11th. Capt. went to camp and left me in charge of Det. Wrote letters home and to Fannie. Felt most sick during the day. Did little. Read the Independent in the evening.
Corinth, Tuesday, Nov. 11. Lay on the platform all day,, and at night we were furnished a car to load our baggage. We loaded it by 12 P. M.
NOVEMBER 11TH.—More projects from the Southwest. Mr. Jno. A. S. has just arrived from New Orleans, where, he states in his communication to the government, he had interviews and correspondence with the U. S. authorities, Butler, etc., and they had given him positive assurances that he will be permitted to take any supplies to the planters (excepting arms and ammunition) in exchange for cotton, which may be shipped to any part of the world. S. says that Butler will let us have anything for a bribe. No doubt! And Mr. L., President of the L. Bank, writes that he will afford facilities to Mr. S. It remains to be seen what our government will do in these matters. They smack of treason.
It is said heavy firing was heard yesterday in the direction of Culpepper C. H., and it is supposed a battle is in progress to-day. No danger of it.
November 11. [Chattanooga] —Each corps of the army has hospitals assigned it; ours belongs to General Hardee’s. He visited it to day, and was much pleased with its order and its cleanliness. We are getting along much better in every way; have dried fruit, a few eggs and potatoes, and bettor cooks.
I went out shopping with Mrs. Newsom, and was quite amused at a bargain she was trying to make with a woman who had potatoes to sell. She tried to get them on credit; but the woman was inexorable, and would not give them; even with all the tales that Mrs. N. told of the sick men needing them. The woman said she had no faith in hospitals paying; so Mrs. N. had to come away without them, and wait till she got the money. She is expecting some—the proceeds of a concert given by the ladies of the place.
November 11.—Yesterday a skirmish took place near Huntsville, Tenn., between a band of rebel guerrillas and a detachment of the Huntsville Home Guard, under Captain Duncan, resulting in a rout of the rebels with a loss of four killed and several wounded; the Home Guard sustaining no loss whatever. To-day the rebels crossed the Cumberland Mountains, committing many depredations on their route, and made their way to Jacksboro, Tenn.
—Great excitement existed at Chambersburgh, Pa., it having been reported that the rebels were in Mercersburgh, and on their march for the former place.—The One Hundred and Fifty-sixth regiment of New-York volunteers, under the command of Colonel Erastus Cooke, left Kingston for the seat of war.—Lieutenant Johnson, of the Seventeenth regiment of Kentucky, was dismissed the service of the United States.—A fight took place near Lebanon, Tenn., between a party of National cavalry, under the command of Kennett and Wolford, and the rebels under Morgan, resulting in the defeat of the latter with a loss of seven killed and one hundred and twenty-five captured.—At Newbern, N. C, the National pickets and a small advance force were driven in by a large body of rebels, who opened the attack with shell and canister. Every thing was prepared to meet the rebels, should they attempt to enter the town, but they confined themselves to harassing the pickets, and withdrew during the night.—The Supreme Court of Georgia decided that the rebel conscript law was constitutional, under the provision which gives to Congress the power to raise armies, and also distinguished from the power to call out the militia. Judge Jenkins delivered the opinion. — Savannah Republican.
