December 30.—I have spent the whole day trying to get milk for the sick, and I think I have succeeded in securing a little. We have two cows, but the milk they give is but a mite, compared to what we need. Many of the convalescent soldiers go round to the citizens begging for milk, who think they can not make better use of it than giving it to them. I do not doubt but these soldiers are in want of it; still we have others to whom it is a necessity.
Lincoln has again refused to exchange prisoners. I do think this is the cruelest act of which he has been guilty, not only to us, but his own men. He is fully aware that we can scarcely get enough of the necessaries of life to feed our own men; and how can he expect us to feed his. Human lives are nothing to him; all the prisoners we have might die of starvation, and I do not expect they would cost him a thought, as all he has to do is to issue a call for so many more thousands to be offered up on his altars of sacrifice. How long will the people of the North submit to this Moloch. He knows that every one of our men is of value to us, for we have not the dregs of the earth to draw from; but our every man is a patriot, battling for all that is dear to him.
