A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital Part 109

The enemy threw up earthworks yesterday, toward the city, from Fort Harrison, one mile in length. He is now within five miles of the city, and if his progress is not checked, he will soon be throwing sh.e.l.ls at us.

But Lee is there, digging also.

Flour rose yesterday to $425 per barrel, meal to $72 per bushel, and bacon $10 per pound. Fortunately, I got 100 pounds of flour from North Carolina a few days ago at $1.20 per pound. And Thomas, my son, detailed as clerk for Gen. Kemper, will draw 30 pounds of flour and 10 pounds bacon per month.

OCTOBER 5TH.--Bright, and very warm.

There is a report that Gen. Hood's army is at Marietta, in Sherman's rear, and it may be so.

One of the clerks (Mr. Bechtel) was killed yesterday by one of the enemy's sharpshooters at Chaffin's Farm. He was standing on the parapet, looking in the direction of the enemy's pickets. He had been warned to no purpose. He leaves a wife and nine children. A subscription is handed round, and several thousand dollars will be raised. Gen. R. E. Lee was standing near when he fell.

All is quiet to-day. But they are impressing the negro men found in the streets to-day to work on the fortifications. It is again rumored that Petersburg is to be given up. I don't believe it.

OCTOBER 6TH.--Bright, and very warm.

The President returned this morning, hastened hither by the perils environing the capital.

An order is published this morning revoking all details for the army of persons between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years of age. If this be rigidly enforced, it will add many thousands to the army. It is said there are 8000 details in the military bureaus of this State.

A dispatch from Gen. Hood, near Lost Mountain (in Georgia, Sherman's rear), dated yesterday, says Sherman is marching out of Atlanta to attack him. He says Gen. Stewart's corps struck the railroad at Big Shanty, capturing 350 prisoner and destroying ten miles of the road.

Gen. Forrest is marching against Altoona. We shall soon have stirring news.

All is quiet near Petersburg and Richmond to-day. Eight of the local companies (clerks) have been ordered to guard the prisoners to Salisbury, N. C.

I saw a New York _Tribune_ to-day, of the 17th inst., and find the Peterson's are advertising new editions of several of my books.

OCTOBER 7TH.--Bright and beautiful.

The government, after giving the news from Georgia, position of Hood, to the press, suppressed it. It is well, perhaps, not to permit Grant, who sees our papers daily, to know what we are doing there.

There are rumors of fighting to-day near Chaffin's Bluff, but we hear no cannon, except an occasional sh.e.l.l at long intervals.

Gen. Bragg is now in hot water with the Quartermaster-General, for ordering the trial of Lieut.-Col. Cone and Major Maynard, Quartermasters, in the city, for alleged violation of law and orders.

Gen. Preston is away again or sick, and Col. August and Lieut.-Col. Lay are again signing papers at "the Bureau," as "acting superintendents."

Bragg may aim another bomb at the refractory concern.

OCTOBER 8TH.--Cloudy, windy, and cold.

The fighting yesterday was more serious than I supposed. It was supposed the conflict would be resumed to-day, but we have no information of any fighting up to this hour--5 P.M.

From Gen. Hood we have a dispatch, saying Major-Gen. French attacked Altoona day before yesterday. He carried all the outworks, but failed at the inner one, and learning a body of the enemy were approaching his rear, Gen. F. withdrew to the main body of the army. He says nothing of the loss, etc. on either side.

At the Tredegar Works, and in the government workshops, the detailed soldier, if a _mechanic_, is paid in money and in rations (at the current prices) about $16 per day, or nearly $6000 per annum. A member of Congress receives $5500, a clerk $4000.

OCTOBER 9TH, SUNDAY.--Cloudy, windy, and very cold.

I hear of no operations yesterday, although, as usual, some cannonnading was audible yesterday evening.

It is said Gen. Pemberton was in great perturbation during the several advances of the enemy last week. Like Boabdil, the Unlucky of Grenada, he lost some of his cannon, and every one antic.i.p.ated disaster under his command. This will furnish fresh material for a.s.saults in Congress on the President, if that body should meet again next month, for placing this officer in so responsible a command, whatever may be his skill, when the soldiers and the people have no faith in him. It is characteristic of the President to adhere to what he deems just and proper, regardless of antic.i.p.ated consequences. This was the habit of Caesar--but he fell.

An effort is again being made to replenish Lee's army with able-bodied details employed in the various departments, but I fear it will only result, as heretofore, in sending to the ranks the weak and diseased who are poor and friendless.

OCTOBER 10TH.--_A white frost_; first frost of the season. All quiet below.

Gen. W. M. Gardner (in Gen. Winder's place) reports that of the exempts and citizens taken from the streets to the front, last week, _a majority have deserted_. This proves that even a despotic military act cannot be committed with impunity.

Gen. Beauregard telegraphs from Opelika, Ala., that he has arranged matters satisfactorily between Gov. Brown of Georgia and Gen. Cobb, regarding exempts and State militia.

The President directs the Secretary to ascertain if this has been done in accordance with law and the interests of the service.

Gen. R. Taylor telegraphs that Gen. E. K. Smith has proclaimed pardon to deserters, from trans-Mississippi Department, after he had arrested most of them and sent them to their regiments, and now he recommends that no more troops be brought over the river or they will be sure to desert.

The President directs the Secretary to correspond with Gen. Smith on the subject. Gen. Taylor is the President's kinsman--by his first marriage.

Gen. Beauregard left Opelika on the 7th inst. for Hood's army, so in a few days we may expect a battle.

OCTOBER 11TH.--Bright and pleasant. All is quiet below.

From Georgia we have many rumors. It is reported that a battle has been fought (second time) at Altoona, which we captured, with 4000 prisoners; that Rome has been taken, with 3000 negro prisoners; and, finally, that we have Atlanta again. I have seen no such dispatches. But the gentleman who a.s.sured me it was all true, has a son a clerk at the President's office, and a relative in the telegraph office. Dispatches may have come to the President; and, if so, it may be our policy to forbid their publication for the present, as the enemy would derive the first intelligence of their disaster from our newspapers.

Well, Gen. Gardner reports, officially, that of the number of exempts, and of the mixed cla.s.s of citizens arrested in the streets, and summarily marched to the "front," "a majority have deserted!" Men, with exemptions in their pockets, going to or returning from market, have been seized by the Adjutant-General's orders, and despotically hurried off without being permitted even to send a message to their families.

Thousands were entrapped, by being directed to call at Gen. Barton's headquarters, an immense warehouse, and receive pa.s.ses; but no Gen.

Barton was there--or if there, not visible; and all the anxious seekers found themselves in prison, only to be liberated as they were incorporated into companies, and marched "to the front." From the age of fifteen to fifty-five, all were seized by that order--no matter what papers they bore, or what the condition of their families--and hurried to the field, where there was no battle. No wonder there are many deserters--no wonder men become indifferent as to which side shall prevail, nor that the administration is falling into disrepute at the capital.

OCTOBER 12TH.--Bright and beautiful. All quiet below, save an occasional booming from the fleet.

Nothing from Georgia in the papers, save the conjectures of the Northern press. No doubt we have gained advantages there, which it is good policy to conceal as long as possible from the enemy.

Squads of able-bodied _detailed_ men are arriving _at last_, from the interior. Lee's army, in this way, will get efficient reinforcements.

The Secretary of the Treasury sends a note over to the Secretary of War to-day, saying the Commissary-General, in his estimates, allows but $31,000,000 for tax in kind--whereas the tax collectors show an actual amount, credited to farmers and planters, of $145,000,000. He says this will no doubt attract the notice of Congress.

Mr. Peck, our agent to purchase supplies in North Carolina, has delivered no wheat yet. He bought supplies for his family; 400 bushels of wheat for 200 clerks, and 100 for a.s.sistant Secretary of War, Judge Campbell, and Mr. Kean, the young Chief of the Bureau. This he says he bought with private funds; but he brought it at the government's expense. The clerks are resolved not to submit to his action.

I hear of more desertions. Mr. Seddon and Mr. Stanton at Was.h.i.+ngton are engaged in a singular game of chance. The harsh orders of both cause mutual abandonments, and now we have the spectacle of men deserting our regiments, and quite as many coming over from the enemy's regiments near the city.

Meantime Gen. Bragg is striving to get the able-bodied men out of the bureaus and to place them in the field.

The despotic order, arresting every man in the streets, and hurrying them to "the front," without delay, and regardless of the condition of their families--some were taken off when getting medicine for their sick wives--is still the theme of execration, even among men who have been the most ultra and uncompromising secessionists. The terror caused many to hide themselves, and doubtless turned them against the government.

They say now such a despotism is quite as bad as a Stanton despotism, and there is not a toss-up between the rule of the United States and the Confederate States. Such are some of the effects of bad measures in such critical times as these. Mr. Seddon has no physique to sustain him. He has intellect, and has read much; but, nevertheless, such great men are sometimes more likely to imitate some predecessor at a critical moment, or to adopt some bold yet inefficient suggestion from another, than to originate an adequate one themselves. He is a scholar, an invalid, refined and philosophical--but effeminate.

OCTOBER 13TH.--Rained all night; clear and cool this morning.

The government publishes nothing from Georgia yet; but it is supposed there is intelligence of an important character in the city, which it would be impolitic to communicate to the enemy.

All still remains quiet below the city. But the curtain is expected to rise on the next act of the tragedy every moment. Gen. Grant probably furloughed many of his men to vote in Pennsylvania and Ohio, on Tuesday last--elections preliminary to the Presidential election--and they have had time to return to their regiments.

If this pause should continue a week or two longer, Gen. Lee would be much strengthened. Every day the farmers, whose details have been revoked, are coming in from the counties; and many of these were in the war in '61 and '62--being experienced veterans. Whereas Grant's recruits, though greater in number, are raw and unskilled.