Huntsville, Sunday, April 3. The mail that came in last night was not distributed till this morning. I received three goodly letters. Inspection and reading of order No. 6, at 8 A. M. after which I went to church. Attended the Methodist Sabbath School, took part in the soldiers’ class taught by a captain. Listened to a sermon in the elegant Presbyterian church on atonement; poor and inconsistent. Wrote a letter to brother John in the afternoon.
General McPherson rode through camp this afternoon at 3 P. M., the idol of all soldiers. Had not seen him since we left Vicksburg before. A true gentleman and noble patriot. Teams back from Whitesburg after rations for men.
April 3—As I have not heard from my parents since the war, thev living in New York, I thought I would send a personal advertisement to a New York paper to let them know that my brother and myself are well, and for them to send an answer through the Richmond paper. I gave this to a Yankee picket, who promised me he would send it to New York. Nothing more up to the 7th.
April 3.—This night a band of forty rebels landed at Cape Lookout, took possession of the lighthouse, put the keeper and his wife in durance, and exploded a keg of powder, which seriously damaged the building. They then retired on the approach of the steamer City of Jersey.
—General J. P. Hatch, commanding the district of Florida, issued the following order from his headquarters at Jacksonville: “The Brigadier-General Commanding desires to make known to his command the successful accomplishment of a daring and difficult expedition, by a detachment of twenty-five men of the One Hundred and Fifteenth New-York volunteers, commanded by Captain S. P. Smith, of the same regiment. This little party, sent from Pilatka to a point thirty-two miles from the post, surprised and captured a picket of the enemy, consisting of one sergeant and nine men, with their arms, and thirteen horses, and equipments complete. To bring off the horses, it was necessary to swim them across the St. John’s River, and force them for a mile and a half through a swamp previously considered impracticable. The energy, intrepidity, and skill with which this expedition was conducted demands the praise of the commander of this district, and the imitation of troops hereafter detached on similar expeditions.
“II. The Brigadier General Commanding announces that the Marine Battery, which was so promptly and cheerfully placed on the line of our intrenchments when they were first thrown up in the vicinity of Jacksonville, and at a time when it was much needed, has been ordered on board the sloop-of-war Mahaska. He takes this opportunity to return his thanks to Captain G. B. Balch, commanding United States naval forces on St. John’s River, for his kindness, and to Ensign Augustus E. French, and the petty officers and men under him, for their valuable services, very good conduct, and exhibition of excellent discipline, throughout their intercourse with the troops of this command.”
by John Beauchamp Jones
APRIL 3D.—The snow has disappeared; but it is cloudy, with a cold northwest wind. The James River is very high, and all the streams are so much swollen that no military operations in the field are looked for immediately. It is generally believed that Grant, the Federal lieutenant-general, will concentrate an immense army for the capture of Richmond, and our authorities are invoked to make the necessary dispositions to resist the attempt.
The papers contain a supplemental proclamation of President Lincoln, and understand it to be merely an electioneering card to secure the Abolition vote in the convention to nominate a candidate for the Presidency. If it does not mean that, its object must be to induce us to send an army North to burn and pillage, so that the Federal authorities may have a pretext to raise new armies, and prosecute the war, not for the Union, but for conquest and power.
Custis and I received yesterday $500 in the new Treasury notes, but we had to pay $16 for two pounds of bacon. So no diminution of prices is yet experienced. It is now a famine, although I believe we are starving in the midst of plenty, if it were only equally distributed. But the government will not, it seems, require the railroads to bring provisions to the exclusion of freight for the speculators. Certain non-combating officers of the government have abundance brought them by the Southern Express Co., and the merchants have abundance of goods brought hither by the same company for the purposes of speculation. Well, we shall see the result! One is almost ready to believe that the government declines to fill the depots here, harboring the purpose of abandoning the city. That would be abandonment of the cause. Nearly all who own no slaves would remain citizens of the United States, if permitted, without further molestation on the part of the Federal authorities, and many Virginians in the field might abandon the Confederate States army. The State would be lost, and North Carolina and Tennessee would have an inevitable avalanche of invasion precipitated upon them. The only hope would be civil war in the North, a not improbable event. What could they do with four millions of negroes arrogating equality with the whites?
