Last night there was great excitement in the garrison on account of the attempt of prisoners to escape. Several companies were called out, and great noise prevailed, while getting the men into line of battle. Cannon was turned on the barracks. Several prisoners, I understand, escaped.
July 21st. Anniversary of the battle of Manassas! The disturbance last night has been denominated the “Pea Patch battle.” Mysterious as it may seem, Captain S. succeeded to-day in getting a bottle of whiskey, to the astonishment no less than the delight of our mess. A quart of whiskey! How charming to chase away dull care! The Captain brought it into the room, with a commingled air of joy and self congratulation, as he exhibited the evidence of his prowess, while he repeated the lines:
“How sad and short were this life’s dull day,
Were it not brightened with pleasure,
I then, for my part, will sport it away
In friendship, love, and of folly a measure.”
Lieutenant D. said if he meant by folly the whiskey, he heartily endorsed the sentiment, and with a general exchange of wit, the bottle was soon discussed among so many.
A Baltimore paper states that “no little excitement was created in Baltimore yesterday by the public display of a “Secesh rag” by Miss Mattie Gilpin, daughter of John Gilpin, of Elkton, Cecil county. Miss Gilpin was first observed passing from the President street depot in company with her sister, and in addition to the flag, which is about twenty inches in length, she wore a large Secesh rosette on the bosom of her dress. Two policemen followed them some distance, and finally took both in custody, conducting them to Marshal Van Nastrand’s office. A warrant was issued by Justice Hess, and after a long conversation with the Marshal, in which Miss Gilpin manifested no regret at the part she was playing, she was released on security to await the action of the grand jury on the charge of violating the treason act of the recent General Assembly of this State by displaying a Secession flag with the view of exciting seditious feelings.” The most important news to-day is, that Major General Halleck has been called to Washington, and put in chief command of all the armies of the Union. The tone of the papers, however, indicate that this does not affect Generals McClellan and Pope, who retain their present position.
The Tribune says: “General Pope’s advance, upon reaching Gordonsville, destroyed all the railway material at hand. As a great portion of the rebel supplies come by this route, the blow to them will be a serious one.” The same paper says: “The Richmond papers are much disturbed at the consolidation of the army of Virginia. Pope is reckoned a fighting General—hence their trouble.” General Pope has ordered his troops to subsist on the enemy, but adds that any man who is loyal from the date of the seizure of his property shall be paid. Dates from Fortress Monroe, to Wednesday last, give no news from McClellan’s army. “Cynthana, Kentucky, has been captured by the rebels under Morgan.” The difficulty about the exchange of prisoners seems to be about settled, if it be true, as reported in the papers, that General Dix had a satisfactory interview with General Hill, and then went up the James River to have an interview with General Lee to that end. The trouble all along has been that the Yankees have been fools enough to suppose that they might capture some of the leaders of our cause, and have the pleasure of hanging them, or exercising their malice in some other way, and they know that the Confederate Government will not exchange, except in prospective or upon a cartel, that will occasion no trouble hereafter, by adopting the principle of the war of 1812. It is all a humbug about General Buckner standing in the way of exchange, for he has been treated as a prisoner of war; and what objection, in a civilized warfare, can they have to exchange him with the other prisoners of war?
July 22d. A Pennsylvania soldier Writes from Tuscumbia, Alabama, to the Philadelphia “Evening Bulletin:” “The people are, of course, very extensive slaveholders, few of them owning less than eighty slaves. Of course they are, without exception, the rankest kind of Secessionists, and bestow upon us looks anything but affectionate as we pass along. One old rebel, in whose clover meadow we encamped on our last day’s march, perfectly raved at the damned Yankees. His slaves were out in the cornfield when we came, and he ordered them in, and told them he would whip them within an inch of their lives if they attempted to escape.”