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

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 30TH—Raining still! Lee’s and Meade’s armies are manœuvring and facing each other still; but probably there will be no battle until the weather becomes fair, and the gushing waters in the vales of Culpepper subside.

            From Charleston we learn that a furious bombardment is going on, the enemy not having yet abandoned the purpose of reducing the forts and capturing the city. Mr. Miles calls loudly for reinforcements and heavy cannon, and says the enemy was reinforced a few days since.

            An indignant letter was received from Gov. Vance to-day, in response to the refusal of the government and Gen. Lee to permit him to send with the army a newspaper correspondent to see that justice was done the North Carolina troops. He withdraws the application, and appeals to history for the justice which (he says) will never be done North Carolina troops in Virginia by their associates. He asserts also that Gen. Lee refused furloughs to the wounded North Carolinians at the battle of Chancellorville (one-half the dead and wounded being from North Carolina), for fear they would not return to their colors when fit for duty!

            Hon. Wm. L. Yancey is dead—of disease of the kidney. The Examiner, to-day, in praising him, made a bitter assault on the President, saying he was unfortunately and hastily inflicted on the Confederacy at Montgomery, and when fixed in position, banished from his presence the heart and brain of the South—denying all participation in the affairs of government to the great men who were the authors of secession, etc.

by John Beauchamp Jones

JULY 29TH—Still raining! The great fear is that the crops will be ruined, and famine, which we have long been verging upon, will be complete. Is Providence frowning upon us for our sins, or upon our cause?

Another battle between Lee and Meade is looked for on the Upper Rappahannock.

Gov. Harris, in response to the President’s call for 6000 men, says Western and Middle Tennessee are in the hands of the enemy, and that about half the people in East Tennessee sympathize with the North!

Some two or three hundred of Morgan’s men have reached Lynchburg, and they believe Morgan himself will get off, with many more of his men.

The New YorkHerald’s correspondent, writing from Washington on the 24th inst., says the United States ministers in England and France have informed the government of the intention of those powers to intervene immediately in our behalf; and that they will send iron-clad fleets to this country without delay. Whereupon the Herald says Mr. Seward is in favor of making peace with us, and reconstructing the Union—pardoning us—but keeping the slaves captured, etc. It is a cock-and-bull story, perhaps, without foundation.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 28TH.—The rumor that Gen. Lee had resigned was simply a fabrication. His headquarters, a few days ago, were at Culpepper C. H., and may be soon this side of the Rappahannock. A battle and a victory may take place there.

            Col. J. Gorgas, I presume, is no friend of Pemberton ; it is not often that Northern men in our service are exempt from jealousies and envyings. He sends to the Secretary of War to-day a remarkable statement of Eugene Hill, an ordnance messenger, for whom he vouches, in relation to the siege and surrender of Vicksburg. It appears that Hill had been sent here by Lieut.-Gen. Holmes for ammunition, and on his way back to the trans-Mississippi country, was caught at Vicksburg, where he was detained until after the capitulation. He declares that the enemy’s mines did our works no more injury than our mines did theirs ; that when the surrender took place, there were an abundance of caps, and of all kinds of ordnance stores; that there were 90,000 pounds of bacon or salt meat unconsumed, besides a number of cows, and 400 mules, grazing within the fortifications ; and that but few of the men even thought of such a contingency as a surrender, and did not know it had taken place until the next day (5th of July), when they were ordered to march out and lay down their arms. He adds that Gen. Pemberton kept himself very close, and was rarely seen by the troops, and was never known to go out to the works until he went out to surrender.

            Major-Gen. D. Maury writes from Mobile, to the President, that he apprehends an attack from Banks, and asks instructions relative to the removal of 15,000 non-combatants from the city. He says Forts Gaines and Morgan are provisioned for six months, and that the land fortifications are numerous and formidable. He asks for 20,000 men to garrison them. The President instructs the Secretary, that when the purpose of the enemy is positively known, it will be time enough to remove the women, children, etc.; but that the defenses should be completed, and everything in readiness. Bat where the 20,000 men are to come from is not stated—perhaps from Johnston.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 27TH.—Nothing but disasters to chronicle now. Natchez and YazooCity, all gone the way of Vicksburg, involving a heavy loss of boats, guns, and ordnance stores; besides, the enemy have got some twenty locomotives in Mississippi.

            Lee has retreated as far as Culpepper Court House.

            The President publishes another proclamation, fixing a day for the people to unite in prayer.

            The weather is bad. With the exception of one or two bright days, it has been raining nearly a month. Superadded to the calamities crowding upon us, we have a rumor to-day that Gen. Lee has tendered his resignation. This is false. But it is said he is opposed to the retaliatory executions ordered by the President, which, if persisted in, must involve the life of his son, now in the hands of the enemy. Our officers executed by Burnside were certainly recruiting in Kentucky within the lines of the enemy, and Gen. Lee may differ with the President in the equity of executing officers taken by us in battle in retaliation.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 26TH.—Letters were received to-day from Gens. Beauregard, Mercer, Whitney, and S. Jones.

            It appears that Beauregard has some 6000 men of all arms, and that the enemy’s force is estimated to be, or to have been (before losing some 3000), about 10,000. It is true the enemy has the benefit of his floating batteries, but we have our stationary ones. I think Charleston safe.

            Gen. Mercer squeaks for the fate of Savannah, unless the government impresses slaves to work on the fortifications. All our generals squeak when an attack is apprehended, for the purpose of alarming the government, and procuring more men and material, so as to make success doubly sure.

            And Gen. Whiting is squeaking loudly for the impressment of a thousand slaves, to complete his preparations for defense; and if he does not get them, he thinks the fall of Wilmington a pretty sure thing.

            And Gen. Jones squeaks from the West, asking that the 3000 infantry he was at last compelled to send to Gen. Lee, near Winchester, be returned to him to oppose the enemy’s raids. But what were they sent to Lee for, unless he meant to give battle? Such may be his intention, and a victory now is demanded of him to place him rectus in curio.

            Beauregard says FortWagner, which has made such a successful defense on MorrisIsland, was located by Gen. Pemberton, and this is evidence of some military skill. But all the waters of Lethe will not obliterate the conviction of the people that he gave his army in the West to the enemy. If he had not been Northern born, they would have deemed him merely incompetent. Hence the impolicy of the government elevating Northern over Southern generals. All generals are judged by the degree of success they achieve, for success alone is considered the proof of merit, and one disaster may obliterate the memory of a dozen victories. Even Lee’s great name is dimmed somewhat in the estimation of fools. He must beat Meade before Grant comes up, or suffer in reputation.

            Gov. Bonham has demanded the free negroes taken on MorrisIsland, to be punished (death) according to the State law.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 25TH.—Gen. Beauregard telegraphs that preparations should be made to withstand a bombardment at Savannah, and authority is asked, at the instance of Gov. Brown, to impress a sufficient number of slaves for the purpose.

            Gen. Jos. E. Johnston telegraphs the President that Grant has fallen back to Vicksburg, and, from information in his possession, will not stay there a day, but will proceed up the river. Gen. Johnston asks if this eccentric movement does not indicate a purpose to concentrate the enemy’s forces for the reduction of Richmond.

            Grant’s men, no doubt, objected to longer service at this season in the Southwest ; perhaps Lincoln thinks Grant is the only general who can take Richmond, or it may be necessary for the presence of the army in the North to enforce the draft, to overawe conspirators against the administration, etc. We shall soon know more about it.

            Misfortunes come in clusters. We have a report to-day that Gen. Morgan’s command has been mostly captured in Ohio. The recent rains made the river unfordable.

            It appears that Gen. Pemberton had but 15 days’ rations to last 48 days, that the people offered him a year’s supply for nothing if he would have it, and this he would not take, red tape requiring it to be delivered and paid for, so it fell into the hands of the enemy. He had a six months’ supply of ammunition when he surrendered, and often during the siege would not let his men reply to the enemy’s guns.

            Advertisers in the papers offer $4000 for substitutes. One offers a farm in HanoverCounty, on the Central Railroad, of 230 acres, for a substitute. There is something significant in this. It was so in France when Napoleon had greatly exhausted the male population.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 24TH—Nothing from Lee, or Johnston, or Beauregard, or Bragg—but ill luck is fated for them all. Our ladies, at least, would not despair. But a day may change the aspect; a brilliant success would have a marvelous effect upon a people who have so long suffered and bled for freedom.

            They are getting on more comfortably, I learn, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Only about 25 of the enemy’s troops are said to be there, merely to guard the wires. In the Revolutionary war, and in the war of 1812, that peninsula escaped the horrors of war, being deemed then, as now, too insignificant to attract the cupidity of the invaders.

            The Secretary of the Treasury sent an agent a few weeks ago with some $12,000,000 for disbursement in the trans-Mississippi country, but he has returned to this city, being unable to get through. He will now go to Havana, and thence to Texas; and hereafter money (if money it can be called) will be manufactured at Houston, where a paper treasury will be established.

            Gen. Jos. E. Johnston has recently drawn for $20,000 in gold.

            A letter from the Commissary-General to Gen. Lee states that we have but 1,800,000 pounds of bacon at Atlanta, and 500,000 pounds in this city, which is less than 30 days’ rations for Bragg’s and Lee’s armies. He says all attempts to get bacon from Europe have failed, and he fears they will fail, and hence, if the ration be not reduced to ¼ pound we shall soon have no meat on hand. Gen. Lee says he cannot be responsible if the soldiers fail for want of food.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 23D.—We have the following dispatch from Gen. Beauregard, which is really refreshing in this season of disasters:

“CHARLESTON, July 22d, 1863.

            “The enemy recommenced shelling again yesterday, with but few casualties on our part. We had, in the battle of the 18th inst., about 150 killed and wounded. The enemy’s loss, including prisoners, was about 2000. Nearly 800 were buried under a flag of .truce.
            “Col. Putnam, acting brigadier-general, and Col. Shaw, commanding the negro regiment, were killed.

“(Signed)         G. T. BEAUREGARD, General.”

            It is said the raiders that dashed into Wytheville have been taken; but not so with the raiders that have been playing havoc with the railroad in North Carolina.

            Another letter from J. M. Botts, Culpepper County, complains of the pasturing of army horses in his fields before the Gettysburg campaign, and asks if his fields are to be again subject to the use of the commander of the army, now returning to his vicinity. If he knows that Gen. Lee is fallen back thither, it is more than any one here seems to know. We shall see how accurate Mr. B. is in his conjecture.

            A letter from Mr. Goodman, president of Mobile and Charleston Railroad, says military orders have been issued to destroy, by fire, railroad equipments to the value of $5,000,000; and one-third of this amount of destruction would defeat the purpose of the enemy for a long time. The President orders efforts to be made to bring away the equipments by sending them down the road.

            Col. Preston, commandant of conscripts for South Carolina, has been appointed Chief of the Bureau of Conscription; he has accepted the appointment, and will be here August 1st. The law will now be honestly executed—if he be not too indolent, sick, etc.

            Archbishop Hughes has made a speech in New York to keep down the Irish.

by John Beauchamp Jones

JULY 22D.—Col. Northrop, Commissary-General, sends in a paper to-day saying that only a quarter of a pound of meat per day can be given the soldiers, except when marching, and then only half a pound. He says no more can be derived from the trans-Mississippi country, nor from the State of Mississippi, or Tennessee, and parts of Georgia and Alabama; and if more than the amount he receives be given the soldiers, the negroes will have to go without any. He adds, however, that the peasants of Europe rarely have any meat, and in Hindostan, never.

Col. Bradley T. Johnson, who commanded a brigade at Gettysburg, writes that on the first day we carried everything before us, capturing 8000 prisoners and losing bat few men; the error was in not following up the attack with all our forces immediately, and in not having sufficient ammunition on the field.

The newspapers to-day contain pretty accurate accounts of the battle.