A Rebel War Clerk’s Diary at the Confederate States Capital, By John Beauchamp Jones

by John Beauchamp Jones

            MAY 19TH—Sunshine and showers, the former predominating. Gen. Lee sends a dispatch saying the enemy’s attack yesterday was repulsed easily—our loss very light.

            It is said, however, that the enemy have Guinea’s Station, 12 miles this side of Fredericksburg.

            Gen. Beauregard intends shelling Butler in his fortifications to-morrow.

            From the West, in Georgia, and beyond the Mississippi, all seem bright enough.

            Congress has passed a resolution to adjourn on the 31st inst., in obedience to the wish of the President. He has a majority in both Houses, it seems; and even the bills they pass are generally dictated by the Executive, and written in the departments. Judge Campbell is much used for this purpose.

            Gen. Bragg sent in a manuscript, derived from a deserter, stating that of Gen. Butler’s two corps, one, the 10th, is from the Southern coast, no negroes in it, leaving only negroes in the Southern garrisons. We learned Butler was in command, and dismissed all apprehensions—and one day we had but 5000 opposed to his 40,000!

by John Beauchamp Jones

            MAY 18TH.—Showers and sunshine, the first preponderating.

            Our killed and wounded in Beauregard’s battle amount to some 1500. The enemy lost 1000 prisoners, and perhaps 1500 killed and wounded.

            Railroad men report heavy firing this morning near Fredericksburg, and it is believed another battle is in progress.

            From the West we have a report, derived from the enemy at Natchez, that Gen. Banks has surrendered to Lieut.-Gen. Smith.

            It is rumored likewise that President Lincoln has called for 60,000 militia, to defend Washington.

            A fortnight ago, Mr. Benjamin procured passports for one or two of his agents “to pass the lines at will.” They may have procured information, but it did not prevent the enemy from coming.

            Attended a funeral (next door to us) ceremony this afternoon at 5 P.M. over the body of Abner Stanfield, a nephew of Mrs. Smith, our next door neighbor, who fell in battle day before yesterday, near Drewry’s Bluff. By the merest accident his relatives here learned of his fall (by the paper we loaned them), and Mr. S. had his body brought to his house, and decently prepared for the grave. His bloody garments were replaced by a fine suit of clothes he had kept with Mr. S.; his mother, etc. live in Northern Virginia, and his cousins, the Misses S., decorated the coffin beautifully with laurels, flowers, etc. He was a handsome young hero, six feet tall, and died bravely in his country’s defense. He was slain by a shell. The ceremony was impressive, and caused many tears to flow. But his glorious death and funeral honor will inspire others with greater resolution to do and to dare, and to die, if necessary, for their country. The minister did him justice, for the hallowed cause in which he fell.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            MAY 17TH.—Sunshine and showers.

            The battle yesterday decided nothing, that I am aware of. We captured 1000 prisoners, stormed some of their intrenchments; losing altogether probably as many as the enemy. But we drove them back to Bermuda Hundred, behind their fortifications, and near their ships.

            Gen. Johnston was attacked at Dalton by 80,000 men last week; accounts, some five days old, say he repulsed the assaults of the enemy.

            The Departmental Battalion is out yet; the city being still in danger. The government is almost suspended in its functions. The Secretary of the Treasury cannot get money from Columbia, S. C., whither he foolishly sent the girls that sign the notes.

            Some of the idle military officers, always found about the departments, look grave, and do not hesitate to express some apprehension of the success of Grant in forcing Lee back, and spreading over all Northern and Northwestern Virginia. The Secretary of War is much secluded, and I see by a correspondence between him and the Secretary of the Treasury, relating to the million and three-quarters in coin, belonging to the New Orleans banks, that the Secretary of the Treasury can make no “valid objection to the proposition of the Secretary of War.” I do not understand what disposition they propose to make of it.

            A list is being prepared at the War Department (by Mr. Assistant Secretary Campbell) for Congress to pass, authorizing the seizure of all the railroads in the Confederacy. Also one establishing and reorganizing the Bureau of Conscription.

            If Butler remains between Richmond and Petersburg, and is reinforced, and Grant is strong enough (two to Lee’s one) to push on toward Richmond, our perils and trials will be greater than ever.

            Vice-President Stephens has not yet arrived. I do not understand that he is ill.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            MAY 16TH.—Warm—sunshine and light showers.

            Memorable day—not yet decided at 2 P.M. Early this morning Gen. Beauregard attacked the enemy on the south side of the river, and by 9 A.M. he had sent over to the city Gen. Heckman and 840 prisoners, the entire 27th Massachusetts Regiment. Subsequently it is said 400 were sent over. By 12 M. the firing had receded out of hearing from the city, and messengers report that the enemy were being driven back rapidly. Hon. Geo. Davis, Attorney-General (from North Carolina), told me that Gen. Whiting was coming up from Petersburg, in the enemy’s rear, with 13,000 men. So, at this hour, the prospects are glorious.

            Gen. Pickett has been relieved—indisposition. Brig.-Gen. Barton has also been relieved, for some cause arising out of the failure to capture the raiders on this side the river.

            Gens. Bragg and Pemberton made an inspection of the position of the enemy, down the river, yesterday, and made rather a cheerless report to the President. They are both supposed to be inimical to Gen. Beauregard, who seems to be achieving such brilliant success.

            The President rode over to Beauregard’s headquarters this morning. Some fear he will embarrass the general; others say he is near the field, prepared to fly, if it be lost. In truth, if we were defeated, it might be difficult for him to return to the city.

            Gen. Breckenridge has defeated Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley.

            Gen. Lee dispatches that he had no fighting Saturday and Sunday. To day Grant is retiring his right wing, but advancing his left east of Spottsylvania Court House, where Lee’s headquarters are still established.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            MAY 15TH.—Clouds, sunshine, and showers.

            The tremendous cannonading all day yesterday at Drewry’s Bluff was merely an artillery duel—brought on by the heavy skirmishing of pickets. The batteries filled the air with discordant sounds, and shook the earth with grating vibration. Perhaps 100 on each side were killed and wounded—”not worth the ammunition,” as a member of the government said.

            Gen. Lee’s dispatches to the President have been withheld from publication during the last four days. The loss of two trains of commissary stores affords the opportunity to censure Lee; but some think his popularity and power both with the people and the army have inspired the motive.

            I saw to-day some of our slightly wounded men from Lee’s army, who were in the fight of Thursday (12th inst.), and they confirm the reports of the heavy loss of the enemy. They say there is no suffering yet for food, and the men are still in good spirits.

            Both the Central and the Fredericksburg Roads are repaired, and trains of provisions are now daily sent to Gen. Lee.

            The Danville Road was not materially injured; the raiders being repulsed before they could destroy the important bridges. Supplies can come to Petersburg, and may be forwarded by wagons to the Danville Road, and thence to Lynchburg, etc.

            Fresh troops are arriving from the South for Beauregard; but he is still withheld from decisive operations.

            The Departmental Battalion is still out; the enemy still menacing us from the Chickahominy.

            During the last four days correspondence has ceased almost entirely, and the heads of bureaus, captains, majors, lieutenant-colonels, adjutants, quartermasters, and commissaries, have nothing to do. They wander about with hanging heads, ashamed to be safely out of the field—I mean all under 50 years of age—and look like sheep-stealing dogs. Many sought their positions, and still retain them, to keep out of danger. Such cravens are found in all countries, and are perhaps fewer in this than any other. However, most of the population of the city between 17 and 50 are absent from the streets; some few shopkeeping Jews and Italians are imprisoned for refusing to aid in the defense, and some no doubt are hidden.

            Most of the able-bodied negro men, both free and slave, have been taken away—in the field as teamsters, or digging on the fortifications. Yet those that remain may sometimes be seen at the street corners looking, some wistfully, some in dread, in the direction of the enemy. There is but little fear of an insurrection, though no doubt the enemy would be welcomed by many of the negroes, both free and slave.

            At 1 P.M. to-day a train arrived from Guinea’s Station with 800 of our wounded, in Sunday’s and Thursday’s battles.

            The following prices are now paid in this city : boots, $200; coats, $350; pants, $100; shoes, $125; flour, $275 per barrel; meal, $60 to $80 per bushel; bacon, $9 per pound; no beef in market; chickens, $30 per pair; shad, $20; potatoes, $25 per bushel; turnip greens, $1 per peck; white beans, $4 per quart, or $120 per bushel; butter, $15 per pound; lard, same; wood, $50 per cord. What a change a decisive victory—or defeat—would make!

by John Beauchamp Jones

            MAY 14TH.—Warm, with alternate sunshine and showers.

                        With the dawn recommenced the heavy boom of cannon down the river. It was rumored this morning that our right wing at Drewry’s Bluff had been flanked, but no official information has been received of the progress of the fight. I saw a long line of ambulances going in that direction.

            To-day it is understood that the battle of Petersburg will be fought by Beauregard, if he be not withheld from attacking the enemy by orders from Richmond.

            We have been beaten, or rather badly foiled here, by orders from high authority; and it is said Gen. Ransom finds himself merely an instrument in the hands of those who do not know how to use him skillfully.

            The enemy is said to have made a bridge across the James River, either to come on the north side, or to enable the raiders to reach them. They are also planting torpedoes, for our iron rams. They are not yet ready.

            Gen. Lee is prosecuting the defensive policy effectively. Couriers to the press, considered quite reliable, give some details of a most terrific battle in SpottsylvaniaCounty day before yesterday, 12th inst. Our men (with extra muskets) fought behind their breastworks. The host of assailants came on, stimulated by whisky rations, ten deep, and fearful was the slaughter. Their loss is estimated at 20,000; ours, 2000. The enemy were still in front. Grant says he will not recross the Rappahannock as long as he has a man left. Lee seems determined to kill his last man.

            A great deal of time is said to have been consumed in cabinet council, making selections for appointments. It is a harvest for hunters after brigadier and major-generalships. The President is very busy in this business, and Secretary Seddon is sick—neuralgia.

            Last night Custis came home on a furlough of twelve hours. He got a clean shirt, and washed himself—not having had his shoes or clothes off for more than a week. He has not taken cold, though sleeping in the water, and not having dry clothes on him for several days. And his appetite is excellent.  He departed again for camp, four miles off, at 5½ A.M., bringing and taking out his gun, his heavy cartridge-box, and well-filled haversack (on his return).

            Half-past four o’clock P.M. A tremendous cannonade is now distinctly heard down the river, the intonations resembling thunder. No doubt the monitors are engaged with the battery at Drewry’s Bluff. It may be a combined attack.

            Gen. Pemberton has resigned his commission; but the President has conferred on him a lieutenant-colonelcy of artillery. Thus the feelings of all the armies and most of the people are outraged; for, whether justly or not, both Pemberton and Bragg, to whom the President clings with tenacity, are especially obnoxious both to the people and the army. May Heaven shield us! Yet the President may be right.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            MAY 13TH.—Cloudy and showery all day.

            Last night my youngest son Thomas came in, furloughed (unsolicited) by his officers, who perceived his exhaustion.

            The enemy disappeared in the night. We suffered most in the several engagements with him near the city. I suppose some sympathizer had furnished him with a copy of our photograph map of the fortifications and country in the vicinity.

            But the joy of many, and chagrin of some at his escape so easily, was soon followed by the startling intelligence that a raid from Gen. Butler’s army had cut the Danville Road! All communication with the country from which provisions are derived is now completely at an end! And if supplies are withheld that long, this community, as well as the army, must be without food in ten days! Col. Northrop told me to-day that unless the railroads were retaken and repaired, he could not feed the troops ten days longer. And he blamed Gen. Lee for the loss of over 200,000 pounds of bacon at Beaver Dam. He says Gen. Lee ordered it there, instead of keeping it at Charlottesville or Gordonsville. Could Lee make such a blunder?

            Most of the members of Congress, when not in session, hang about the door and hall of the War Department, eager for news, Mr. Hunter being the most prominent, if not the most anxious among them. But the wires are cut in all directions, and we must rely on couriers.

            The wildest rumors float through the air. Every successive hour gives birth to some new tidings, and one must be near the Secretary’s table indeed to escape being misled by false reports.

            For two days no dispatch has been received from Gen. Lee, although one hears of a dispatch just received from him at every corner of the streets. A courier arrived to-day from the vicinity of our army. He saw a gentleman who saw Gen. Lee’s son Robert yesterday, and was informed by him that our army was five miles nearer Fredericksburg, having driven the enemy farther down the river.

            Our iron-clads—Virginia, Richmond, and Fredericksburg—I understood from Lieut. Minor, this morning, will not go out until in readiness to cope successfully with the enemy’s fleet of gun-boats and monitors. How long that will be he did not say. It may be to-day. And while I write (4½ P.M.) I can distinctly hear the roar of artillery down the river. It may be an engagement by land or by water, or by both; and it may be only the customary shelling of the woods by the enemy’s gun-boats. But it is very rapid sometimes.

            A courier reports the raid on the Danville Road as not formidable. They are said, however, to have blown up the coal-pits. They cannot blow coal higher than our own extortionate people have done.

            I directed my wife to lay out all the money about the house in provisions. She got a bushel of meal and five pounds of bacon for about $100. If we must endure another turn of the screw of famine, it is well to provide for it as well as possible. We cannot starve now, in a month; and by that time, Gens. Lee and Beauregard may come to our relief. Few others are looked to hopefully. The functionaries here might have had a six-months’ supply, by wise and energetic measures.

            The President has had the Secretary of War closeted with him nearly all day. It is too late now for the evacuation of Richmond, and a desperate defense will be made. If the city falls, the consequences will be ruinous to the present government. And how could any of its members escape? Only in disguise. This is the time to try the nerves of the President and his counselors!

            Gen. Bragg is very distasteful to many officers of the army; and the croakers and politicians would almost be willing to see the government go to pieces, to get rid of the President and his cabinet. Some of the members of Congress are anxious to get away, and the Examiner twits them for their cowardice. They will stay, probably.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            MAY 12TH.—Thunder, lightning, and rain all day.

            The report of Gen. Lee’s victory was premature, and Butler has not gone, nor the raiders vanished. On the contrary, the latter were engaged in battle with Stuart’s division late in the afternoon, and recommenced it this morning at 3 o’clock, the enemy remaining on the ground, and still remain, some five miles from where I write. Major-Gen. J. E. B. Stuart was wounded last evening, through the kidney, and now lies in the city, in a dying condition! Our best generals thus fall around us.

            The battle raged furiously; every gun distinctly heard at our house until 1 P.M.—the enemy being intrenched between our middle and outer line of works. Meantime our ambulances are arriving every hour with the wounded, coming in by the Brooke Turnpike.

            The battalion my sons are in lost none of its men, though shelled by the enemy early in the morning; nor do we know that our battery did any execution. Capt. Warner delivered the provisions their mother cooked for them yesterday. He saw only Custis, who gladly received the bread, and meat, and eggs; but he and Tom were both drenched with rain, as they had no shelter yesterday. But a comrade, and one of Custis’s Latin pupils, whom I saw, returned on sick leave, says Thomas stands the fatigue and exposure better than Custis, who was complaining.

            About 11 A. M. to-day there was very heavy reports of cannon heard in the direction of Drewry’s Bluff, supposed to be our battery shelling the country below, for some purpose.

            I understand one or more of our iron-clads will certainly go out this evening, or to-night; we shall know it when it occurs, for the firing will soon follow.

            Worked in my garden; set out corn and (yellow) tomatoes; the former given me by my neighbor, to whom I had given lettuce and beet plants.

            My wife spent a miserable day, some one having reported that the Departmental Battalion was cut to pieces in the battle. When I came in, she asked me if Custis and Thomas were alive, and was exceedingly glad to know not a man in the company had been even wounded.

            I shall never forget the conformation of the clouds this morning as the storm arose. There were different strata running in various directions. They came in heaviest volume from the southeast in parallel lines, like lines of battle swooping over the city. There were at the same time shorter and fuller lines from the southwest, and others from the north. The meeting of these was followed by tremendous clashes of lightning and thunder; and between the pauses of the artillery of the elements above, the thunder of artillery on earth could be distinctly heard. Oh that the strife were ended! But Richmond is to be defended at all hazards.

            It is said, however, that preparations have been made for the flight of the President, cabinet, etc. up the Danville Road, in the event of the fall of the city. Yet no one fears that the present forces environing it could take it. If Lee withstands Grant another week, all will be safe. My greatest fear is the want of provisions. My wife bought a half bushel of meal; so we have a week’s supply on hand, as we were not quite out. I hope Beauregard will soon restore communication with the South.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            MAY 11TH.—Bright and pleasant—breezy. This has been a day of excitement.

At midnight the Departmental Battalion were marched from the south side of the river back to the city, and rested the remainder of the night at CampLee. But at 9 A.M. they were marched hurriedly to MeadowBridge. They came past our house. Custis and his brother Thomas ran in—remaining but a moment. Custis exclaimed : “Let me have some money, mother (I had to go to the office), or we will starve. The government don’t feed us, and we are almost famished. Cook something, and get Captain Warner to bring it in his buggy—do, if possible.” He got $20. They looked worn, and were black with dust, etc. My daughter said “they looked like negroes.”

            The Secretary issued this morning a new edition of his handbills, calling the people “to arms.”

            Mr. Mallory’s usual red face turned purple. He has not yet got out the iron-clad Richmond, etc., which might have sunk Gen. Butler’s transports.

            Lieut.-Col. Lay was exhibiting a map of our defenses, and predicting something,—whether good or evil, I did not stay to learn. But I thought such maps ought not to be shown in the public ball of the department.

            The armory was open to-day, and all who desired them were furnished with arms.

            The Governor, I hear, issued a notification that the enemy would be here to day, etc. I did not see it.

            All classes not in the army were gathered up and marched to the defenses.

            2 P.M. Respectable men just from the vicinity report a great victory for Lee, yesterday, though we have nothing from him. The Secretary believes these concurring reports, which state that the battle, beginning near Spottsylvania Court House, ended at Fredericksburg, indicating a WATERLOO.

            And a dispatch from Gen. Ransom from the south side of the river, states that Butler’s army is retreating to the transports. This is regarded as confirmation of Lee’s victory.

            Several dispatches from Gen. Stuart state that the raiders have been severely beaten in several combats this morning, and are flying toward Dover Mills. They may come back, for they have not heard of Grant’s defeat.

            Mr. Memminger is said to have been frightened terribly, and arrangements were made for flight.