Camp Jones, July 3, 1862. Wednesday [Thursday], — A fine bright day. General Cox is trying to get our army transferred to General Pope’s command in eastern Virginia.
The dispatches received this beautiful afternoon fill me with sorrow. We have an obscure account of the late battle or battles at Richmond. There is an effort to conceal the extent of the disaster, but the impression left is that McClellan’s grand army has been defeated before Richmond!! If so, and the enemy is active and energetic, they will drive him out of the Peninsula, gather fresh energy everywhere, and push us to the wall in all directions. Foreign nations will intervene and the Southern Confederacy be established.
Now for courage and clear-headed sagacity. Nothing else will save us. Let slavery be destroyed and this sore disaster may yet do good.
