There is great tribulation among the departmental clerks, who are to be enrolled as conscripts, and probably sent to the army. The young relatives of some of the Secretaries are being appointed commissaries, quartermasters, surgeons, etc. They keep out of danger.
Many ladies have been appointed clerks. There is a roomful of them just over the Secretary’s office, and he says they distract him with their noise of moving of chairs and running about, etc.
The papers publish an account of a battle of snow-balls in our army, which indicates the spirit of the troops, when, perhaps, they are upon the eve of passing through such awful scenes of carnage as will make the world tremble at the appalling spectacle.
March 31st.—Cloudy and cold. No war news, though it is generally believed that Longstreet is really in the valley.
A speech delivered by the Hon. J. W. Wall, in New Jersey, is copied in all the Southern papers, and read with interest by our people.
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.
April 1st.—Cloudy all day, with occasional light showers.
No war news; but the papers have an account of the shooting of an infant by some Yankees on account of its name. This shows that the war is degenerating more and more into savage barbarism.