А
ДНЕВНИК
МЯТЕЖНОГО ВОЕННОГО КЛЕРКА
В СТОЛИЦЕ
КОНФЕДЕРАТИВНЫХ ШТАТОВ АМЕРИКИ.
АВТОР:
ДЖОН БОШАМ ДЖОНС,
КЛЕРК В ВОЕННОМ МИНИСТЕРСТВЕ ПРАВИТЕЛЬСТВА КОНФЕДЕРАТИВНЫХ ШТАТОВ; АВТОР «ДИКИХ СЦЕН ЗАПАДА» И Т. Д.
ТОМЫ I и II.
ФИЛАДЕЛЬФИЯ: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 1866.
Зарегистрировано в соответствии с Актом Конгресса в 1866 году компанией J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. в канцелярии клерка Окружного суда Соединенных Штатов по Восточному округу Пенсильвании.
ПРЕДИСЛОВИЕ.
Этот дневник велся с ведома президента и военного министра. Я уведомил их об этом в записке. Они не возражали против критики их официальных действий, поскольку позволили мне продолжать исполнять обязанности на весьма важной должности в правительстве вплоть до самого конца его существования.
Мои проницательные друзья поймут, почему я принял скромную должность клерка, отказавшись от поста поверенного в делах в Неаполе, предложенного мне мистером Кэлхуном во время администрации президента Полка.
Дж. Б. Дж.
Онанкок, округ Аккомак, Виргиния, март 1866 г.
СОДЕРЖАНИЕ.
VOLUME I. CHAPTER I. My flight from the North and escape into Virginia.—Revolutionary scene at Richmond.—The Union Convention passes the Ordinance of Secession.—Great excitement prevails in the South. 13 CHAPTER II. Depart for Montgomery.—Interview with President Davis.—My position in the Government.—Government removed to Richmond.—My family. 30 CHAPTER III. Troops pour into Richmond.—Beginning of hostilities.—Gen. Lee made a full general.—Major-Gen. Polk.—A battle expected at Manassas. 47 CHAPTER IV. My family in North Carolina.—Volunteers daily rejected.—Gen. Winder appears upon the stage.—Toombs commissioned.—Hunter Secretary of State.—Duel prevented.—Col. B. Secretary for a few hours.—Gen. Garnett killed.—Battle of Manassas.—Great excitement.—Col. Bartow. 57 CHAPTER V. My son Custis appointed clerk in the War Department.—N. Y. Herald contains a pretty correct army list of the C. S.—Appearance of the “Plug Uglies.”—President’s rupture with Beauregard.—President sick.—Alien enemies ordered away.—Brief interview with the President.—“Immediate.”—Large numbers of cavalry offering.—Great preparations in the North. 69 CHAPTER VI. Four hundred thousand troops to be raised.—Want of arms.—Yankees offer to sell them to us.—Walker resigns.—Benjamin succeeds.—Col. J. A. Washington killed.—Assigned, temporarily, to the head of the passport office. 77 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 Washington.—Great success at Leesburg or Ball’s Bluff. 82 CHAPTER VIII. Quarrel between Gen. Beauregard and Mr. Benjamin.—Great naval preparations in the North.—The loss of Port Royal, S. C., takes some prestige.—The affair at Belmont does not compensate for it.—The enemy kills an old hare.—Missouri secedes.—Mason and Slidell captured.—French Consul and the actresses.—The lieutenant in disguise.—Eastern Shore of Virginia invaded.—Messrs. Breckinridge and Marshall in Richmond. 89 CHAPTER IX. Gen. Lee ordered South.—Gen. Stuart ambuscaded at Drainsville.—W. H. B. Custis returns to the Eastern Shore.—Winder’s detectives.—Kentucky secedes.—Judge Perkins’s resolution.—Dibble goes North.—Waiting for Great Britain to do something.—Mr. Ely, the Yankee M. C. 96 CHAPTER X. Seward gives up Mason and Slidell.—Great preparations of the enemy.—Gen. Jackson betrayed.—Mr. Memminger’s blunders.—Exaggerated reports of our troops in Kentucky and Tennessee. 103 CHAPTER XI. Fall of Fort Henry.—Of Fort Donelson.—Lugubrious Inauguration of the President in the Permanent Government.—Loss of Roanoke Island. 108 CHAPTER XII. Nashville evacuated.—Martial law.—Passports.—Com. Buchanan’s naval engagement.—Gen. Winder’s blunders.—Mr. Benjamin Secretary of State.—Lee commander-in-chief.—Mr. G. W. Randolph Secretary of War. 112 CHAPTER XIII. Gen. Beauregard succeeds Gen. Sydney Johnston.—Dibble, the traitor.—Enemy at Fredericksburg.—They say we will be subdued by the 15th of June.—Lee rapidly concentrating at Richmond.—Webster, the spy, hung. 118 CHAPTER XIV. Disloyalists entrapped.—Norfolk abandoned.—Merrimac blown up.—Army falling back.—Mrs. Davis leaves Richmond.—Preparing to burn the tobacco.—Secretary of War trembles for Richmond.—Richmond to be defended.—The tobacco.—Winking and blinking.—Johnston’s great battle.—Wounded himself.—The wounded.—The hospitals. 122 CHAPTER XV. Huger fails again.—A wounded boy.—The killed and wounded.—Lee assumes command.—Lee prepares to attack McClellan.—Beauregard watches the gold.—Our generals scattered.—Hasty letter from Gen. Lee.—Opening of grand battle.—First day, 26th June.—Second, etc.—Lee’s consummate skill.—Every day for a week it rages.—Streets crowded with Blue Jackets.—McClellan retires. 131 CHAPTER XVI. Terrific fighting.—Anxiety to visit the battle-field.—Lee prepares for other battles.—Hope for the Union extinct.—Gen. Lee brings forward conscripts.—Gen. Cobb appointed to arrange exchange of prisoners.—Mr. Ould as agent.—Pope, the braggart, comes upon the stage.—Meets a braggart’s fate.—The war transferred to Northern Virginia. 140 CHAPTER XVII. Vicksburg shelled.—Lee looks toward Washington.—Much manœuvring in Orange County.—A brigade of the enemy annihilated.—McClellan flies to Washington.—Cretans.—Lee has a mighty army.—Missouri risings.—Pope’s coat and papers captured.—Cut up at Manassas.—Clothing captured of the enemy. 147 CHAPTER XVIII. Lee announces a victory.—Crosses the Potomac.—Battle of Sharpsburg.—McClellan pauses at the Potomac.—Lee moves mysteriously.—The campaign a doubtful one in its material results.—Horrible scene near Washington.—Conscription enlarged.—Heavy loss at Sharpsburg.—10,000 in the hospitals here. 151 CHAPTER XIX. McClellan has crossed the Potomac.—Another battle anticipated.—I am assured here that Lee had but 40,000 men engaged at Sharpsburg.—He has more now, as he is defending Virginia.—Radicals of the North want McClellan removed.—Our President has never taken the field.—Lee makes demonstrations against McClellan.—A Jew store robbed last night.—We have 40,000 prisoners excess over the enemy.— My family arrived from Raleigh.—My wife’s substitute for coffee.—Foul passports.—My friend Brooks dines and wines with members of Congress.—The Herald and Tribune tempt us to return to the Union.—Lee writes, no immediate advance of McClellan.—Still a rumor of Bragg’s victory in Kentucky.—Enemy getting large reinforcements.—Diabolical order of Governor Baylor.—Secretary’s estimate of conscripts and all others, 500,000.—Bragg retreating from Kentucky.—Bickering between Bragg and Beauregard.—Lee wants Confederate notes made a legal tender.—There will be no second Washington. 160 CHAPTER XX. Gen. Lee in Richmond: beard white.—First proposition to trade cotton to the enemy.—Secretary in favor of it.—All the letters come through my hands again.—Lee falling back.—5000 negroes at work on the fortifications.—Active operations looked for.—Beauregard advises non-combatants to leave the city.—Semmes’s operations.—Making a nation.—Salt works lost in Virginia.—-Barefooted soldiers.— Intrigues of Butler in New Orleans.—Northern army advancing everywhere.—Breach between the President and Secretary of War.—President’s servant arrested for robbing the Treasury.—Gen. J. E. Johnston in town.—Secretary has resigned.—Hon. J. A. Seddon appointed Secretary of War.—The enemy marching on Fredericksburg.—Lee writes that he will be ready for them.—Kentuckians will not be hog drivers.—Women and children flying from the vicinity of Fredericksburg.—Fears for Wilmington.—No beggars.—Quiet on the Rappahannock.—M. Paul, French Consul, saved the French tobacco.—Gen. Johnston goes West.—President gives Gov. Pettit full authority to trade cotton to France. 179 CHAPTER XXI. The great crisis at hand.—The rage for speculation raises its head.—Great battle of Fredericksburg.—The States called on for supplies.—Randolph resigns as brigadier-general.—South Carolina honor.—Loss at Fredericksburg.—Great contracts.—Lee’s ammunition bad.—Small-pox here. 199 CHAPTER XXII. Lee in winter quarters.—Bragg’s victory in the Southwest.—The President at Mobile.—Enemy withdraw from Vicksburg.—Bragg retreats as usual.—Bureau of Conscription.—High rents.—Flour contracts in Congress.—Efforts to escape conscription.—Ships coming in freely.— Sneers at negro troops.—Hopes of French intervention.—Gen. Rains blows himself up.—Davis would be the last to give up.—Gov. Vance protests against Col. August’s appointment as commandant of conscripts.—Financial difficulties in the United States. 228 CHAPTER XXIII. Proposed fixture of prices.—Depreciation in the North.—Gen. Hooker in command of the U. S. forces.—Lee thinks Charleston will be attacked.—Congress does nothing.—Some fears for Vicksburg.—Pemberton commands.—Wise dashes into Williamsburg.—Rats take food from my daughter’s hand.—Lee wants the meat sent from Georgia to Virginia, where the fighting will be.—Gen. Winder uneasy about my Diary.—Gen. Johnston asks to be relieved in the West. 252 CHAPTER XXIV. Removed into Clay Street.—Gen. Toombs resigned.—Lincoln dictator.—He can call 3,000,000 of men.—President is sick.—His office is not a bed of roses.—Col. Gorgas sends in his oath of allegiance.—Confederate gold $5 for $1.—Explosion of a laboratory.—Bad weather everywhere.— Fighting on the Mississippi River.—Conflict of views in the Conscription Bureau.—Confederate States currency $10 for $1.—Snow a foot deep, but melting.—We have no negro regiments in our service.—Only 6000 conscripts from East Tennessee.—How seven were paroled by one.—This is to be the crisis campaign.—Lee announces the campaign open. 265 CHAPTER XXV. Symptoms of bread riots.—Lee forming depots of provisions near the Rappahannock.—Beauregard ready to defend Charleston.—He has rebuffed the enemy severely.—French and British advancing money on cotton.—The Yankees can beat us in bargaining.—Gen. Lee anxious for new supplies.—The President appeals to the people to raise food for man and beast.—Federal and Confederate troops serenading each other on the Rappahannock.—Cobbler’s wages $3000 per annum.—Wrangling in the Indian country.—Only 700 conscripts permonth from Virginia.—Longstreet at Suffolk.—The President’s well eye said to be failing.—A “reconnoissance!”—We are planting much grain.—Picking up pins.—Beautiful season.—Gen. Johnston in Tennessee.—Longstreet’s successes in that State.—Lee complains that his army is not fed.—We fear for Vicksburg now.—Enemy giving up plunder in Mississippi.—Beauregard is busy at Charleston.—Gen. Marshall, of Kentucky, fails to get stock and hogs.—Gen. Lee calls for Longstreet’s corps.—The enemy demonstrating on the Rappahannock. 284 CHAPTER XXVI. Lee snuffs a battle in the breeze.—Hooker’s army supposed to be 100,000 men.—Lee’s perhaps 55,000 efficient.—I am planting potatoes.—Part of Longstreet’s army gone up.—Enemy makes a raid.—Great victory at Chancellorville.— Hot weather.—Our poor wounded coming in streams, in ambulances and on foot.—Hooker has lost the game.—Message from the enemy.—They ask of Lee permission to bury their dead.—Granted, of course.—Hooker fortifying.—Food getting scarce again.—Gen. Lee’s thanks to the army.—Crowds of prisoners coming in.—Lieut.-Gen. Jackson dead.—Hooker’s raiders “hooked” a great many horses.—Enemy demand 500,000 more men.—Beauregard complains that so many of his troops are taken to Mississippi.—Enemy at Jackson, Miss.—Strawberries.—R. Tyler.—My cherries are coming on finely.—Ewell and Hill appointed lieutenant-generals.—President seems to doubt Beauregard’s veracity.—Hon. D. M. Lewis cuts his wheat to-morrow, May 28th.—Johnston says our troops are in fine spirits around Vicksburg.—Grant thunders on.—Plan of servile insurrection. 303 CHAPTER XXVII. Vicksburg refuses to surrender to Grant.—Spiritualism at the White House.—Lee is pushing a little northward.—It is said Grant has lost 40,000 men.—He is still pounding Vicksburg.—Petty military organizations.—Mr. Randolph busy.—Foolish passport rules.—Great battle imminent, but speculation may defeat both sides.—Early’s victory.—We have only supplies of corn from day to day.—Chambersburg struck.—Col. Whiting complains of blockade-running at Wilmington.—False alarm.—Grant still before Vicksburg. 338 CHAPTER XXVIII. Enemy threatening Richmond.—The city is safe.—Battle of Gettysburg.—Great excitement.—Yankees in great trouble.— Alas! Vicksburg has fallen.—President is sick.—Grant marching against Johnston at Jackson.—Fighting at that place.—Yankees repulsed at Charleston.—Lee and Meade facing each other.—Pemberton surrenders his whole army.—Fall of Port Hudson.—Second class conscripts called for.—Lee has got back across the Potomac.—Lincoln getting fresh troops.—Lee writes that he cannot be responsible if the soldiers fail for want of food.—Rumors of Grant coming East.—Pemberton in bad odor.—Hon. W. L. Yancey is dead. 366 VOLUME II. CHAPTER XXIX. Some desertion.—Lee falling back.—Men still foolishly look for foreign aid.—Speculators swarming.—God helps me to-day.—Conscripts.—Memminger shipping gold to Europe.—Our women and children making straw bonnets.—Attack on Charleston.—Robert Tyler as a financier.—Enemy throw large shells into Charleston, five and a half miles.—Diabolical scheme.—Gen. Lee has returned to the army. 3 CHAPTER XXX. Situation at Wilmington.—Situation at Charleston.—Lincoln thinks there is hope of our submission.—Market prices.—Ammunition turned over to the enemy at Vicksburg.—Attack on Sumter.—Stringent conscription order.—Disaffection in North Carolina.—Victory announced by Gen. Bragg.—Peril of Gen. Rosecrans.—Surrender of Cumberland Gap.—Rosecrans fortifying Chattanooga.—Mr. Seward on flag of truce boat.—Burnside evacuating East Tennessee.—The trans-Mississippi army.—Meade sending troops to Rosecrans.—Pemberton in Richmond.—A suggestion concerning perishable tithes. 30 CHAPTER XXXI. Suffering of our wounded at Gettysburg.—Prisoners from the battle of Chickamauga.—Charleston.—Policy in the Southwest.—From Gen. Bragg.—Letter from President Davis.—Religious revival.—Departure of the President for the Southwest.—About General Bragg.—Movement of mechanics and non-producers.—About “French” tobacco.—The markets.—Outrage in Missouri.—Speculations of government agents.—From Gen. Lee.—Judge Hastings’s scheme.—Visit to our prisons.—Letter from Gen. Kirby Smith.—President Davis at Selma.—Gen. Winder’s passports.—The markets.—Campbellites and Methodists.—From Gen. Lee.—From the Southwest. 57 CHAPTER XXXII. Letters from various sections.—The President and Gen. Bragg.—State of the markets.—Causes of the President’s tour.—Gen. Duff Green.—Return of the President.—Loss of Hoke’s and Haye’s brigades.—Letter from Gen. Howell Cobb.—Dispatch from Gen. Lee.—State of the markets.—Letter from A. Moseley.—Mrs. Todd in Richmond.—Vice-President Stephens on furloughs.—About Gen. Bragg and the battle of Lookout Mountain. 85 CHAPTER XXXIII. Assembling of Congress.—President’s message.—The markets.—No hope for the Confederate currency.—Averill’s raid.—Letter from Gov. Vance.—Christmas.—Persons having furnished substitutes still liable to military duty. 110 CHAPTER XXXIV. Hospitalities of the city to Gen. Morgan.—Call for a Dictator.—Letter from Gen. Lee.—Letters from Gov. Vance.—Accusation against Gen. Winder.—Treatment of Confederate prisoners (from the Chicago Times).—Change of Federal policy.—Efforts to remove Col. Northrop.—Breach between the President and Congress.—Destitution of our prisoners.—Appeal of Gen. Lee to the army.—New Conscription Act.—Letter from Gen. Cobb. 122 CHAPTER XXXV. Gen. Lovell applies for a command.—Auspicious opening of 1864.—Mr. Wright’s resolutions.—Rumored approach of Gen. Butler.—Letter from Gov. Brown.—Letter from Gen. Lee.—Dispatches from Gen. Beauregard.—President Davis’s negroes.—Controversy between Gen. Winder and Mr. Ould.—Robbery of Mr. Lewis Hayman.—Promotion of Gen. Bragg, and the Examiner thereon.—Scarcity of provisions in the army.—Congress and the President. 140 CHAPTER XXXVI. Attempt to capture Richmond.—Governor Vance and Judge Pearson.—Preparations to blow up the “Libby” prisoners.—Letter from General Lee.—Proposal to execute Dahlgren’s raiders.—General Butler on the Eastern Shore.—Colonel Dahlgren’s body.—Destitution of the army.—Strength of the Southwestern army.—Destitution of my family.—Protest from South Carolina.—Difficulty with P. Milmo & Co.—Hon. J. W. Wall. 162 CHAPTER XXXVII. Return of Mr. Ould and Capt. Hatch from Fortress Monroe.—Quarrel between Mr. Memminger and Mr. Seddon.—Famine.—A victory in Louisiana.—Vice-President Stephens’s speech.—Victory of Gen. Forrest.—Capture of Plymouth, N. C.—Gen. Lee’s bill of fare. 179 CHAPTER XXXVIII. Dispatch from Gen. J. E. Johnston.—Dispatch from Gen. Lee.—Mr. Saulsbury’s resolution in the U. S. Senate.—Progress of the enemy.—Rumored preparations for the flight of the President.—Wrangling of high officials.—Position of the armies. 196 CHAPTER XXXIX. Beauregard’s plan.—The battle.—Defeat near Staunton.—Fight at Petersburg.—Decision about Marylanders.—Beauregard in disgrace.—Dispatch from Gen. J. E. Johnston. 223 CHAPTER XL. Gen. Lee’s dispatch announcing Gen. Hampton’s victory.—Cost of a cup of coffee.—From Gens. Johnston and S. D. Lee.—Gen. Early in Maryland.—Rumored capture of Baltimore.—Letter from Gen. Lee.—Dispatch from Gen. Hood.—Status of the local troops. 241 CHAPTER XLI. From the Northern papers.—Letter from J. Thompson, Canada.—From Mr. McRae, our foreign agent.—Dispatch from Major-Gen. Maury.—“General Order No. 65.”—Battle of Reams’s Station. 258 CHAPTER XLII. The Federal Presidency.—The Chicago Convention.—Fall of Atlanta.—Bureau of Conscription.—From Gen. Hood.—Vice-President Stephens on the situation.—Letter from Mrs. Mendenhall.—Dispatch from Gen. Lee.—Defeat of Gen. Early.—From Gov. Vance.—From Gov. Brown, of Georgia.—Gen. Lee’s indorsement of Col. Moseby.—Hon. Mr. Foote.—Attack on Fort Gilmer.—Indiscriminate arrest of civilians. 275 CHAPTER XLIII. Attempt to retake Fort Harrison.—A false alarm.—Dispatches from Gen. Lee.—Impressments.—Gen. Butler’s generosity.—Matters in and about the city.—Beverly Tucker’s contract with a New York firm for supplies. 297 CHAPTER XLIV. Proclamation for a day of public worship.—Gov. Allen, of Louisiana.—Letter from Gen. Beauregard.—Departure for Europe.—Congress assembles.—Quarrel between Gens. Kemper and Preston.—Gen. Forrest doing wonders.—Tennessee.—Gen. Johnston on his Georgia campaign.—John Mitchel and Senator Foote.—Progress of Sherman.—From Gov. Brown, of Georgia.—Capture of Gen. Pryor. 320 CHAPTER XLV. Desertions.—Bragg and Kilpatrick.—Rents.—Gen. Winder’s management of prisoners.—Rumored disasters in Tennessee.—Prices.—Progress of Sherman.—Around Richmond.—Capture of Fort McAlister.—Rumored death of the President.—Yankee line of spies.—From Wilmington and Charleston.—Evacuation of Savannah. 343 CHAPTER XLVI. Waning confidence in the President.—Blockade-running.—From the South.—Beauregard on Sherman.—The expeditions against Wilmington.—Return of Mr. Pollard.—The Blairs in Richmond.—Arrest of Hon. H. S. Foote.—Fall of Fort Fisher.—Views of Gen. Cobb.—Dismal.—Casualties of the war.—Peace commissioners for Washington. 371 CHAPTER XLVII. Gen. Lee appointed General-in-Chief.—Progress of Sherman.—The markets.—Letter from Gen. Butler.—Return of the peace commissioners.—The situation.—From Gen. Lee.—Use of negroes as soldiers.—Patriotism of the women.—Pardon of deserters.—The passport system.—Oh for peace!—Gen. Lee on negro soldiers.—Conventions in Georgia and Mississippi. 405 CHAPTER XLVIII. From the North.—Rumored defeat of Gen. Early.—Panic among officials.—Moving the archives.—Lincoln’s inaugural.—Victory in North Carolina.—Rumored treaty with France.—Sheridan’s movements.—Letter from Lord John Russell.—Sherman’s progress.—Desperate condition of the government.—Disagreement between the President and Congress.—Development of Grant’s combination.—Assault at Hare’s Hill.—Departure of Mrs. President Davis. 436 CHAPTER XLIX. Rumors of battles.—Excitement in the churches.—The South Side Road captured by the enemy.—Evacuation of Richmond.—Surrender of Gen. Lee.—Occupation of Richmond by Federal forces.—Address to the people of Virginia by J. A. Campbell and others.—Assassination of President Lincoln. 464