Bought a bushel of red peas to-day for $30—the last for sale—the rest being taken for horses. Such is the food that my family is forced to subsist on.
Mr. Haxall, a millionaire, of conscript age, has just been appointed assessor of tax-in-kind. The salary is a pitiful sum, but the rich man is kept out of the army while the poor man is forced to fight in defense of his property.
The President is indefatigable in his labors. Every day the papers he sends to the department bear evidence of his attention to the minutest subject, even to the small appointments; he frequently rejects the Secretary’s recommendations.
Gen. Bragg recommends that publication be made here, in the United States, and in Europe, encouraging enlistments of foreigners in our army.
August 26th.—Clear; but rained copiously last night.
A letter from Gen. Lee indicates that the “Bureau of Conscription” fails to replenish the army. The rich men and slaveowners are but too successful in getting out, and in keeping out of the service. The Governor, who commissions magistrates, is exempting some fifty daily, and these, in many instances, are not only young men, but speculators. And nearly every landed proprietor has given bonds to furnish meal, etc. to obtain exemption. Thus corruption is eating to the heart of the cause, and I fear the result of the contest between speculation and patriotism. Mr. Seddon says he has striven to make the conscription officers do their duty, and was not aware that so many farmers had gotten exemption. He promises to do all in his power to obtain recruits, and will so use the strictly local troops as to render the Reserves more active. What that means we shall soon see.
A dispatch from Mobile says Fort Morgan is in the possession of the enemy! Per contra, a dispatch from the same place says Memphis is in the possession of Forrest.
August 27th.—Bright morning, and fine shower last night. The people are smiling to-day from our success of Thursday, announced in the following dispatch from Gen. Lee:
“Headquarters Army Northern Virginia,
“August 26th, 1864.
“Hon. J. A. Seddon, Secretary of War.