A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital Part 7

SEPTEMBER 16TH.--Mr. Benjamin's. .h.i.therto perennial smile faded almost away as he realized the fact that he was now the most important member of the cabinet. He well knew how arduous the duties were; but then he was robust in health, and capable of any amount of labor.

It seems, after all, that Mr. Benjamin is only _acting_ Secretary of War, until the President can fix upon another. Can that be the reason his smile has faded almost away? But the President will appoint him. Mr.

Benjamin will please him; he knows how to do it.

SEPTEMBER 17TH.--A man from Was.h.i.+ngton came into my office to-day, saying he had important information from Was.h.i.+ngton. I went into the Secretary's room, and found Mr. Benjamin surrounded by a large circle of visitors, all standing hat in hand, and quite silent. I asked him if he would see the gentleman from Was.h.i.+ngton. He said he "_didn't know who to see_." This produced a smile. He seemed to be standing there waiting for someone to speak, and they seemed to be waiting an invitation from him to speak. I withdrew from the embarra.s.sing scene, remarking that my gentleman would call some other time. Meanwhile I wrote down the information, and sent it to the President.

SEPTEMBER 18TH.--Gen. Floyd has been attacked at Gauley, by greatly superior numbers. But he was intrenched, and slew hundreds of the enemy before he retreated, which was effected without loss.

SEPTEMBER 19TH.--We hear of several splendid dashes of cavalry near Mana.s.sas, under Col. Stuart; and Wise's cavalry in the West are doing good service.

SEPTEMBER 20TH.--Col. J. A. Was.h.i.+ngton has been killed in a skirmish. He inherited Mount Vernon. This reminds me that Edward Everett is urging on the war against us. The universal education, so much boasted of in New England, like their religion, is merely a humbug, or worse than a humbug, the fruitful source of crime. I shall doubt hereafter whether superior intelligence is promotive of superior virtue. The serpent is wiser than the dove, but never so harmless. Ignorance is bliss in comparison with Yankee wisdom.

SEPTEMBER 21ST.--The Secretary has authorized me to sign pa.s.sports "for the Secretary of War." My son attends to his letters. I have now an opportunity of _seeing_ more. I have authority to order transportation for the parents of soldiers, and for goods and provisions taken to the camps.

SEPTEMBER 22D.--Harris and Magraw, who were taken on the field of Mana.s.sas, looking for the remains of Col. Cameron, have been liberated by Gen. Winder, on the order of the acting Secretary of War. This is startling; for Mr. Benjamin was the most decided man, at the time of their capture, against their liberation. _Per contra_, a Mr. G., a rich New York merchant, and Mr. R., a wealthy railroad contractor, whom I feared would break through the meshes of the law, with the large sums realized by them here, have been arrested by the Secretary's order, on the ground that they have no right to transfer the sinews of war to the North, to be used against us.

SEPTEMBER 23D.--Thousands of dollars worth of clothing and provisions, voluntary and patriotic contributions to the army, are arriving daily.

SEPTEMBER 24TH.--The time is up for the departure of alien enemies. This is the last day, according to the President's proclamation. We have had no success lately, and never can have success, while the enemy know all our plans and dispositions. Keep them in total ignorance of our condition and movements, and they will no more invade us than they would explore a vast cave, in which thousands of rattlesnakes can be heard, without lights. Their spies and emissaries here are so many torch-bearers for them.

SEPTEMBER 25TH.--Mr. Benjamin and Gen. Winder, after granting a special interview to Messrs. G. and R., have concluded to let them depart for Pennsylvania and New York! Nor is this all. _I have an order from Mr.

Benjamin to give pa.s.sports_, until further orders, _to leave the country to all persons who avow themselves alien enemies, whether in person or by letter_, provided they take no wealth with them. This may be a fatal policy, or it may be a _trap_.

SEPTEMBER 26TH.--Had a conversation with the Secretary to-day, on the policy of sending Union men out of the Confederacy. I told him we had 15,000 sick in the hospitals at Mana.s.sas, and this intelligence might embolden the enemy to advance, capture the hospitals, and make our sick men prisoners. He said such prisoners would be a burden to them, and a relief to us. I remarked that they would count as prisoners in making exchanges; and to abandon them in that manner, would have a discouraging effect on our troops. He said that sending unfriendly persons out of the country was in conformity with the spirit of the act of Congress, and recommended me to reperuse it and make explanations to the people, who were becoming clamorous for some restriction on the egress of spies.

SEPTEMBER 27TH.--To-day I prepared a leading editorial article for the _Enquirer_, taking ground directly opposite to that advocated by Mr.

Benjamin. It was written with the law before me, which gave no warrant, as I could perceive, for the a.s.sumption of the Secretary.

SEPTEMBER 28TH.--I sent the paper containing my article to J. R. Davis, Esq., nephew of the President, avowing its authors.h.i.+p, and requesting him to ask the President's attention to the subject.

SEPTEMBER 29TH.--To-day Mr. Benjamin issued several pa.s.sports himself, and sent several others to me with peremptory orders for granting them.

SEPTEMBER 30TH.--A pretty general jail delivery is now taking place.

Gen. Winder, acting I suppose, of course, under the instructions of the Secretary of War--and Mr. Benjamin is now Secretary indeed--is discharging from the prisons the disloyal prisoners sent hither during the last month by Gens. Johnston, Floyd, and Wise. Not only liberating them, but giving them transportation to their homes, mostly within the enemy's lines. Surely if the enemy reciprocates such magnanimous courtesy, the war will be merely child's play, and we shall be spared the usual horrors of civil war. We shall see how the Yankees will appreciate this kindness.

CHAPTER VII.

An order for the publication of the names of alien enemies.--Some excitement.--Efforts to secure property.--G. A. Myers, lawyer, actively engaged.--Gen. Price gains a victory in Missouri.--Billy Wilson's cut-throats cut to pieces at Fort Pickens.--A female spy arrives from Was.h.i.+ngton.--Great success at Leesburg or Ball's Bluff.

OCTOBER 1ST.--I find that only a few hundred alien enemies departed from the country under the President's proclamation, allowing them forty days, from the 16th of August, to make their arrangements; but under the recent order of Mr. Benjamin, if I may judge from the daily applications, there will be a large emigration. The persons now going belong to a different cla.s.s of people: half of them avowing themselves friendly to our cause, and desiring egress through our lines on the Potomac, or in the West, to avoid being published as alien enemies going under flag of truce _via_ Norfolk and Fortress Monroe. Many of them declare a purpose to return.

OCTOBER 2D.--A day or two ago Col. Bledsoe, who visits me now very seldom, sent an order by Mr. Brooks for me to furnish a list of the names of alien enemies for publication. This was complied with cheerfully; and these publications have produced some excitement in the community.

OCTOBER 3D.--The President not having taken any steps in the matter, I have no alternative but to execute the order of the Secretary.

OCTOBER 4TH.--Sundry applications were made to-day to leave the country under flag of truce, _provided I would not permit the names to be published_. The reason for this request is that these persons have connections here who might be _compromised_. I refused compliance. In one or two instances they intimated that they would not have their names published for _thousands of dollars_. My response to this was such as to cause them to withdraw their applications.

OCTOBER 5TH.--To-day several Southern-born gentlemen, who have lived long in the North, and have their fortunes and families there, applied for pa.s.sports. They came hither to save the investments of their parents in Northern securities, by having them transferred to their children.

This seems legitimate, and some of the parties are old and valued friends of mine. I know their sympathies are with their native land. Yet why are they so late in coming? I know not. It is for me to send them out of the country, for such is the order of the Secretary of War. The loyalty of the connections of these gentlemen is vouched for in a note (on file) written by Mr. Hunter, Secretary of State. Their names must be published as alien enemies. They will take no part in the war.

OCTOBER 6TH.--Nothing of importance.

OCTOBER 7TH.--Nothing of note.

OCTOBER 8TH.--Mr. Gustavus Myers, a lawyer of this city, seems to take an active interest in behalf of parties largely engaged in business at Baltimore. And he has influence with the Secretary, for he generally carries his points over my head. The parties he engineers beyond our lines may possibly do us no harm; but I learn they certainly do themselves much _good_ by their successful speculations. And do they not take gold and other property to the North, and thereby defeat the object of the sequestration act? The means thus abstracted from the South will certainly be taxed by the North to make war on us.

OCTOBER 9TH.--Contributions of clothing, provisions, etc. are coming in large quant.i.ties; sometimes to the amount of $20,000 in a single day.

Never was there such a patriotic _people_ as ours! Their blood and their wealth are laid upon the altar of their country with enthusiasm.

I must say here that the South Carolinians are the _gentlest_ people I ever met with. They accede to every requisition with cheerfulness; and never have I known an instance where any one of them has used subterfuge to evade a rule, however hard it might bear upon them. They are the soul of honor, truth, and patriotism.

OCTOBER 10TH.--A victory--but not in the East. I expect none here while there is such a stream of travel flowing Northward. It was in Missouri, at Lexington. Gen. Price has captured the town and made several thousand prisoners, whom he dismissed on parole.

OCTOBER 11TH.--And Wise has had b.l.o.o.d.y fighting with Rosecrans in Western Virginia. He can beat the enemy at fighting; but they beat him at manoeuvring, with the use of the guides Gen. Winder has sent them from our prisons here.

OCTOBER 12TH.--Col. Wright has had a race with the Yankees on the North Carolina coast. They fled to their works before his single regiment with such precipitation as to leave many of their arms and men behind. We lost but one man: and he was fat, broke his wind, and died in the pursuit.

OCTOBER 13TH.--Another little success, but not in this vicinity. Gen.

Anderson, of South Carolina, in the night crossed to Santa Rosa Island and cut up Billy Wilson's regiment of New York cut-throats and thieves; under the very guns of Fort Pickens.

OCTOBER 14TH.--Kissing goes by favor! Col. M----r, of Maryland, whose published letter of objuration of the United States Government attracted much attention some time since, is under the ban. He came hither and tendered his services to this government, but failed to get the employment applied for, though his application was urged by Mr. Hunter, the Secretary of State, who is his relative. After remaining here for a long time, vainly hoping our army would cross the Potomac and deliver his native State, and finding his finances diminis.h.i.+ng, he sought permission of the Secretary to return temporarily to his family in Maryland, expecting to get them away and to save some portion of his effects. His fidelity was vouched for in strong language by Mr. Hunter, and yet the application has been refused! I infer from this that Mr.

Benjamin is omnipotent in the cabinet, and that Mr. Hunter cannot remain long in it.

OCTOBER 15TH.--I have been requested by Gen. Winder to-day to refuse a pa.s.sport to Col. M----r to leave the city in any direction. So the colonel is within bounds! I learn that he differed with Gen. Winder (both from Maryland) in politics. But if he was a Whig, so was Mr.

Benjamin. Again, I hear that Col. M. had some difficulty with Col.

Northrop, Commissary-General, and challenged him. This is a horse of another color. Col. N. is one of the special favorites of the President.

OCTOBER 16TH.--Col. M. applied to me to-day for a pa.s.sport to Maryland, bringing a strong letter from Mr. Hunter, and also a note from Col.

Bledsoe, Chief of the Bureau of War. He seemed thunderstruck when I informed him that Gen. Winder had obtained an order from the Secretary of War to detain him. A few moments after Gen. Winder came with a couple of his detectives (all from Baltimore) and arrested him. Subsequently he was released on parole of honor, not to leave the city without Gen.

Winder's permission. I apprehend bad consequences from this proceeding.

It may prevent other high-toned Marylanders from espousing our side of this contest.

OCTOBER 17TH.--Hurlbut has been released from prison. Mr. Hunter has a letter (intercepted) from Raymond, editor of the New York _Times_, addressed to him since the battle of Mana.s.sas.

OCTOBER 18TH.--I cannot perceive that our army increases much in strength, particularly in Virginia. The enemy have now over 660,000 in the field in various places, and seem to be preparing for a simultaneous advance.

It is said _millions_ of securities, the property of the enemy, are transferred to the United States. It is even intimated that the men engaged in this business have the protection of men in high positions _on both sides_. Can it be possible that _we_ have men in power who are capable of taking bribes from the enemy? If so, G.o.d help the country!

OCTOBER 19TH.--Col. Ashby with 600 men routed a force of 1000 Yankees, the other day, near Harper's Ferry. That is the cavalry again! The spies here cannot inform the enemy of the movements of our mounted men, which are always made with celerity.

OCTOBER 20TH.--A lady, just from Was.h.i.+ngton, after striving in vain to procure an interview with the Secretary of War, left with me the programme of the enemy's contemplated movements. She was present with the family of Gen. Dix at a party, and heard their purposes disclosed.

They meditate an advance immediately, with 200,000 men. The head of Banks's column is to cross near Leesburg; and when over, a movement upon our flank is intended from the vicinity of Arlington Heights. This is truly a formidable enterprise, if true. We have not 70,000 effective men in Northern Virginia. The lady is in earnest--and remains here.

I wrote down the above information and sent it to the President; and understood that dispatches were transmitted immediately to Gen.