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

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 20TH.—Nothing from Lee or from Johnston, except that the latter has abandoned Jackson. From Bragg’s army, I learn that a certain number of regiments were moving from Chattanooga toward Knoxville—and I suspect their destination is Lee’s army.

            But we have a dispatch from Beauregard, stating that he has again repulsed an attack of the enemy on the battery on Morris Island with heavy loss—perhaps 1500—while his is trifling.

            A thousand of the enemy’s forces were in Wytheville yesterday, and were severely handled by 130 of the home guards. They did but little injury to the railroad, and burned a few buildings.

            An indignant letter has been received from the Hon. W. Porcher Miles, who had applied for a sub-lieutenancy for Charles Porcher, who had served with merit in the 1st South Carolina Artillery, and was his relative. It seems that the President directed the Secretary to state that the appointment could not be given him because he was not 21 years of age. To this Mr. M. replies that several minors in the same regiment have been appointed. I think not.

            Governor Brown writes a long letter, protesting against the decision of the Confederate States Government, that the President shall appoint the colonel for the 51st Georgia Regiment, which the Governor says is contrary to the Confederate States Constitution. He will resist it.

            A Mrs. Allen, a lady of wealth here, has been arrested for giving information to the enemy. Her letters were intercepted. She is confined at the asylum St. Francis de Sales. The surgeon who attends there reports to-day that her mental excitement will probably drive her to madness. Her great fear seems to be that she will be soon sent to a common prison. There is much indignation that she should be assigned to such comfortable quarters—and I believe the Bishop (McGill) protests against having criminals imprisoned in his religious edifices. It is said she has long been sending treasonable letters to Baltimore—but the authorities do not have the names of her letter-carriers published. No doubt they had passports. [click to continue…]

by John Beauchamp Jones

JULY 19TH.—We have no news this morning. But a rumor prevails, which cannot be traced to any authentic source, that Texas has put herself under the protection of France. It is significant, because public sentiment seems to acquiesce in such a measure; and I have not met with any who do not express a wish that it may be so. Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas are now isolated, and no protection or aid can be given them by the government here; and it is natural, after the fall of New Orleans and Vicksburg, for the people to hope that the invaders may be deprived of their prey just at the moment when they anticipated a realization of its enjoyment.

Hon. Win. Porcher Miles writes that, after consultation, the officers have decided that it would be impracticable to hold MorrisIsland, even if the enemy were driven from it at the point of the bayonet. Therefore they call loudly for Brooke guns of long range, and guns of large calibre for Sumter, so that the fort may prevent the enemy from erecting batteries in breaching distance. They say, in their appeal, that since the fall of Vicksburg there is no other place (but one) to send them. They are now idle in Richmond. I understand the Secretary of War, etc. are in consultation on the subject, and I hope the President will, at last, yield to Gen. Beauregard’s demands.

Gen. Maury also writes for guns and ordnance stores for the defense of Mobile, which may be attacked next. He will get them.

If the insurrection in New York lives, and resistance to conscription should be general in the North, our people will take fresh hope, and make renewed efforts to beat back the mighty armies of the foe–suffering, and more than decimated, as we are.

But if not—if Charleston and Richmond and Mobile should fall, a peace (submission) party will spring up. Nevertheless, the fighting population would still resist, retiring into the interior and darting out occasionally, from positions of concentration, at the exposed camps of the enemy.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 18TH.—Lee has got over the Potomac with a loss, in crossing, of 1500; and Johnston has abandoned Jackson, Miss.

            But we have awful good news from New York: an INSURRECTION, the loss of many lives, extensive pillage and burning, with a suspension of the conscription!

            Gen. Morgan is in the enemy’s country.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 17TH—At last we have the authentic announcement that Gen. Lee has recrossed the Potomac! Thus the armies of the Confederate States are recoiling at all points, and a settled gloom is apparent on many weak faces The fall of Charleston is anticipated. Subjugation is not apprehended by the government; for, if driven to an interior line of defense, the war may be prolonged indefinitely, or at least until the United States becomes embroiled with some European power.

            Meantime we are in a half starving condition. I have lost twenty pounds, and my wife and children are emaciated to some extent. Still, I hear no murmuring.

            To-day, for the second time, ten dollars in Confederate notes are given for one in gold; and no doubt, under our recent disasters, the depreciation will increase. Had it not been for the stupidity of our Dutch Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Memminger, there would have been no financial difficulties. If he had recommended (as he was urged to do) the purchase by the government of all the cotton, it could have been bought at 7 cents per pound; and the profits alone would have defrayed the greater portion of the expenses of the war, besides affording immense diplomatic facilities and advantages. But red-tape etiquette, never violated by the government, may prove our financial ruin beyond redemption. It costs this government five times as much to support an army as it does the United States; and the call for conscripts is a farce, since the speculators (and who is not one now?) will buy exemptions from the party who, strangely, have the authority to grant them.

            The last accounts from Jackson state that Burnside is reinforcing Grant, and that heavy skirmishing is going on daily. But all suppose that Johnston must retreat. And Bragg is in no condition to face Rosecrans.

            Whether Lee will come hither or not, no one knows; but some tremble for the fate of Richmond. Lee possibly may cross the Potomac again, however, if Meade detaches a heavy force to capture Richmond.

            What our fate would be if we fall into the hands of the invader, may be surmised from the sufferings of the people in New Orleans.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 16TH. —This is another blue day in the calendar. Nothing from Lee, or Johnston, or Bragg; and no news is generally bad news. But from Charleston we learn that the enemy are established on MorrisIsland, having taken a dozen of our guns and howitzers in the sand hills at the lower end; and that the monitors had passed the bar, and doubtless an engagement by land and by water is imminent, if indeed it has not already taken place. Many regard Charleston as lost. I do not.

            Again the Enquirer, edited by Mitchel, the Irishman, is urging the President to seize arbitrary power; but the Examiner combats the project defiantly.

            Mr. Secretary Seddon, who usually wears a sallow and cadaverous look, which, coupled with his emaciation, makes him resemble an exhumed corpse after a month’s interment, looks to-day like a galvanized corpse which had been buried two months. The circles round his eyes are absolutely black! And yet he was pacing briskly backward and forward between the President’s office and the War Department. He seems mach affected by disasters.

            The United States agent of exchange has sent a notice to our agent that the negroes we capture from them in battle must be exchanged as other soldiers are, according to the cartel, which said nothing about color; and if the act of Congress in relation to such soldiers be executed, the United States would retaliate to the utmost extremity.

            Captains H. W. Sawyer and John Flinn, having been designated by lot for execution in retaliation for two of our captains executed by Gen. Burnside for recruiting in Kentucky, write somewhat lugubriously, in bad grammar and execrable chirography, that, as they never served under Burnside, they should not be made to suffer for his deed. They say we have two of Burnside’s captains at Atlanta (and they give their names) who would be the proper victims.

            I saw a paper to-day, sent to the department, with a list of the United States officers at Memphis who are said to have taken bribes; among them is Col. H—r, of Illinois, Provost Marshal General (Grant’s staff); Col. A—, Illinois, ex-Provost Marshal; Capt. W—, Illinois, Assistant Provost Marshal; Capt. C— (Gen. Herbert’s staff), and “Dan Ross,” citizen of Illinois, procurer.

            On the 9th instant Gen. D. H. Hill (now lieutenant-general, and assigned to Mississippi) asks if troops are to be sent to cover Lee’s retreat; and fears, if the enemy establish themselves at Winchester, they will starve Lee to death. Speaking of the raid of the enemy to the North Carolina Railroad, he said they would do the State infinite service by dashing into Raleigh and capturing all the members of the legislature. He also hits at the local newspapers here. Their mention of his name, and the names of other officers in the campaign round Richmond, informed the enemy that we had no troops at Goldsborough and Weldon, and hence the raid. And, after all, he says the enemy were not more numerous than our forces in the recent dash at Richmond. He says it was no feint, but a faint.

            To-day an order was issued for the local troops to deliver up their ammunition. What does that mean?

            And to-day the President calls for the second class of conscripts, all between eighteen and forty-five years of age. So our reserves must take the field!

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 15TH—There was a rumor of another battle beyond the Potomac, this morning, but it has not been confirmed.

            From Charleston we have no news; but from Jackson there has been considerable fighting, without a general engagement.

            The Enquirer and Sentinel to-day squint at a military dictatorship; but President Davis would hardly attempt such a feat at such a time.

            Gen. Samuel Jones, Western Virginia, has delayed 2000 men ordered to Lee, assigning as an excuse the demonstrations of the enemy in the KanawhaValley. “Off with his head—so much for Buckingham!”

            There is some gloom in the community ; but the spirits of the people will rebound.

            A large crowd of Irish, Dutch, and Jews are daily seen at Gen. Winder’s door, asking permission to go North on the flag of truce boat. They fear being forced into the army; they will be compelled to aid in the defense of the city, or be imprisoned. They intend to leave their families behind, to save the property they have accumulated under the protection of the government.

            Files of papers from Europe show that Mr. Roebuck and other members of Parliament, as well as the papers, are again agitating the question of recognition. We shall soon ascertain the real intentions of France and England. If they truly desire our success, and apprehend danger from the United States in the event of a reconstruction of the Union, they will manifest their purposes when the news of our recent calamities shall be transported across the ocean. And if such a thing as reconstruction were possible, and were accomplished (in such a manner and on such terms as would not appear degrading to the Southern people), then, indeed, well might both France and England tremble. The United States would have millions of soldiers, and the Southern people would not owe either of them a debt of gratitude.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 14TH.—To-day we have tidings of the fall of Port Hudson, on the Mississippi River, our last stronghold there. I suppose some 10,000 or 12,000 of our men had to surrender, unconditionally. Thus the army of Gen. Pemberton, first and last, some 50,000 strong, has been completely destroyed. There is sadness and gloom throughout the land!

            The enemy are established on MorrisIsland, and the fate of Charleston is in doubt.

            We have nothing authentic from Gen. Lee; but long trains of the slightly wounded arrived yesterday and to-day.

            It has been raining, almost every day, for nearly two weeks.

            The President is quite amiable now. The newspaper editors can find easy access, and he welcomes them with smiles.

            A letter was received to-day from a Major Jones, saying he was authorized to state that the Messrs. engine-makers in Philadelphia, were willing to remove their machinery to the South, being Southern men. The President indorsed that authority might be given for them to come, etc.

            Gen. Beauregard writes for a certain person here skilled in the management of torpedoes—but Secretary Mallory says the enemy’s gun-boats are in the James River, and he cannot be sent away. I hope both cities may not fall I

            A heavy thunder-storm, accompanied with a deluging rain, prevails this afternoon at 5½ o’clock P.M.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 13TH.—The Enquirer says the President has got a letter from Gen. Lee (why not give it to the people?) stating that his operations in Pennsylvania and Maryland have been successful and satisfactory, and that we have now some 15,000 to 18,000 prisoners, besides the 4000 or 5000 paroled. Nonsense!

            Lee and Meade have been facing each other two or three days, drawn up in battle array, and a decisive battle may have occurred ere this. The wires have been cut between Martinsburg and Hagerstown.

            Not another word have we from either Charleston or Jackson; but we learn that monitors, gun-boats, and transports are coming up the James River.

            Altogether, this is another dark day in our history. It has been officially ascertained that Pemberton surrendered, with Vicksburg, 22,000 men! He has lost, during the year, not less than 40,000! And Lovell (another Northern general) lost Fort Jackson and New Orleans. When will the government put “none but Southerners on guard?”

            Letters to-day from the Governors of South Carolina, Alabama, and North Carolina show that all are offended at the Confederate government. Judge Campbell’s judicial profundity (and he is the department’s correspondent) is unfortunate at this crisis, when, not great principles, but quick and successful fighting, alone can serve.

            It appears that President Lincoln has made a speech in Washington in exultation over the fall of Vicksburg, and the defeat of an army contending against the principle that all men were created equal. He means the negro—we mean that white men were created equal—that we are equal to Northern white people, and have a right, which we do not deny to them, of living under a government of our own choice.

by John Beauchamp Jones

            JULY 12TH.—There is nothing additional this morning from Charleston, Mississippi, or Maryland. Telegraphic communication is still open to Jackson, where all was quiet again at the last accounts; but battle, then, must occur immediately. From Charleston we learn that Beauregard had repulsed every assault of the enemy. It is rumored that Lee’s account of the battle of Gettysburg will be published to-morrow, showing that it was the “most brilliant and successful battle of the war.” I hope he may say so —for then it will be so.

            Our papers are publishing Milroy’s papers captured at Winchester.