May 20—Three years ago to-day the Old North State left the Union, and we went to the front full of hopes to speedily show the Yankee Government that the South had a right to leave the Union; but to-day, how dark it looks!
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
May 20, Friday. The Secretary of State is becoming very anxious in view of our relations with France. Wants the ironclad Dictator should be sent over soon as possible.
I told him she was yet in the hands of the contractor, and was likely to be for some time, and when we had her I was not certain that it would be best to send her across the Atlantic. But he was nervous; said it was the only way to stop the Rebel ironclads from coming out, unless Grant should happen to get a victory.
The recent arrest of a Spaniard (Arguellis) who was in New York, and who was abducted, it is said, by certain officials under instructions or by direction of the Secretary of State is exciting inquiry. Arguellis is accused of having, in some way, participated in the slave trade. But if the assertion be true, we have no extradition treaty with Spain, and I am therefore surprised at the proceeding. There is such hostility to the slave trade that a great wrong may perhaps be perpetrated with impunity and without scrutiny, but I hope not. Nothing has ever been said in Cabinet on the subject, nor do I know anything in regard to it, except what I see in the papers.
Mr. Seward sometimes does strange things, and I am inclined to believe he has committed one of those freaks which make me constantly apprehensive of his acts. He knows that slavery is odious and all concerned in slave traffic are distrusted, and has, it seems, improved the occasion to exercise arbitrary power, expecting probably to win popular applause by doing an illegal act. Constitutional limitations are to him unnecessary restraints.
Should there be an investigation instituted and mere denunciation of the act, the President will be called upon to assume the responsibility, yet I am persuaded he has nothing to do in this affair beyond acquiescing without knowledge in what has been done. Could the abduction by any possibility be popular, Mr. S. expects it to inure to his credit.
by John Beauchamp Jones
MAY 20TH.—Fog; then sunshine all day, but cool.
Troops have been marching through the city all day from the south side. I presume others take their places arriving from the South. Barton’s brigade had but 700 out of 2000 that went into battle last Monday. Our wounded amount to 2000; perhaps the enemy’s loss was not so large.
Col. Northrop is vehement in his condemnation of Beauregard; says his blunders are ruining us; that he is a charlatan, and that he never has been of any value to the Confederate States; and he censures Gen. Lee, whom he considers a general, and the only one we have, and the Secretary of War, for not providing transportation for supplies, now so fearfully scarce.
I read an indorsement to-day, in the President’s writing, as follows : “Gen. Longstreet has seriously offended against good order and military discipline in rearresting an officer (Gen. Law) who had been released by the War Department, without any new offense having been alleged.—J. D.”
Mr. Mallory, Secretary of the Navy, wrote a pungent letter to the Secretary of War to-day, on the failure of the latter to have the obstructions removed from the river, so that the iron-clads might go out and fight. He says the enemy has captured our lower battery of torpedoes, etc., and declares the failure to remove the obstructions “prejudicial to the interests of the country, and especially to the naval service, which has thus been prevented from rendering important service.”
Gen. Bragg writes a pretty tart letter to the Secretary of War to-day, desiring that his reports of the Army of Tennessee, called for by Congress, be furnished for publication, or else that the reasons be given for withholding them.
We have no war news to-day.
Mrs. Minor, of CumberlandCounty, with whom my daughter Anne resides, is here, in great affliction. Her brother, Col. Rudolph, was killed in the battle with Sheridan, near Richmond; shot through the head, and buried on the field. Now she learns that another brother, a cadet, just 18 years old, was killed in the battle of Gen. Breckinridge, in the valley, shot through the head; and she resolves to set out for Staunton at once, to recover his body. Her father and sister died a few months ago, and she has just heard of her aunt’s death.
A lady living next door to us had two brothers wounded on Monday, and they are both here, and will recover.
Gen. Breckinridge is now marching to reinforce Lee. It is said Butler will set sail to join Grant. If so, we can send Lee 20,000 more men, and Beauregard’s victory will yield substantial fruits.
May 20. Friday. — Settled weather at last; cold nights. One of the most interesting and affecting things is the train of contrabands, old and young, male and female — one hundred to two hundred — toiling uncomplainingly along after and with the army. They with our prisoners and the trains left for Gauley this morning.
Kingston, May 20, 1864.
Our cars got here this morning; the whistle woke me. One of the most improbable rumors afloat is that letters will be allowed to go North to-day. I know you are anxious, so will not lose the rumor of a chance. Billy Fox returned to-day. My things are all right at Chattanooga. I’m in excellent health and all right every way. The news from Grant encourages us very much, but if he gets whipped it won’t keep us from whaling Johnston. We’re now about 50 miles from Atlanta. Will probably take a day or two here to replenish the supply trains, and let the men recruit a little after their twenty-day march; don’t know anything about Johnston; it is not thought he will give us a fight near here.
