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.
MARCH 1ST.--It is certain that the City of Nashville has been evacuated,
and will, of course, be occupied by the enemy. Gen. Johnston, with the
remnant of his army, has fallen down to Murfreesborough, and as that is
not a point of military importance, will in turn be abandoned, and the
enemy will drop out of the State into Alabama or Mississippi.
MARCH 2D.--Gen. Jos. E. Johnston has certainly made a skillful
retrograde movement in the face of the enemy at Manassas. He has been
keeping McClellan and his 210,000 men at bay for a long time with about
40,000. After the abandonment of his works it was a long time before the
enemy knew he had retrograded. They approached very cautiously, and
found that they had been awed by a few _Quaker guns--logs of wood_ in
position, and so painted as to resemble cannon. Lord, how the Yankee
press will quiz McClellan!
MARCH 3D.--But McClellan would not advance. He could not drag his
artillery at this season of the year; and so he is embarking his army,
or the greater portion of it, for the Peninsula.
MARCH 4TH.--We shall have stirring times here. Our troops are to be
marched through Richmond immediately, for the defense of Yorktown--the
same town surrendered by Lord Cornwallis to Washington. But its fall or
its successful defense now will signify nothing.
MARCH 5TH.--Martial law has been proclaimed.
MARCH 6TH.--Some consternation among the citizens--they dislike martial
law.
MARCH 7TH.--Gen. Winder has established a guard with fixed bayonets at
the door of the passport office. They let in only a few at a time, and
these, when they get their passports, pass out by the rear door, it
being impossible for them to return through the crowd.
MARCH 8TH.--Gen. Winder has appointed Capt. Godwin Provost Marshal.
MARCH 9TH.--Gen. Winder has appointed Col. Porter Provost
Marshal,--Godwin not being high enough in rank, I suppose.
MARCH 10TH.--One of the friends of the Secretary of War came to me
to-day, and proposed to have some new passports printed, with the
likeness of Mr. Benjamin engraved on them. He said, I think, the
engraving had already been made. I denounced the project as absurd, and
said there were some five or ten thousand printed passports on hand.
MARCH 11TH.--I have summed up the amounts of patriotic contributions
received by the army in Virginia, and registered on my book, and they
amount to $1,515,898.[1]
The people of the respective States contributed as follows:
North Carolina $325,417
Alabama 317,600
Mississippi 272,670
Georgia 244,885
South Carolina 137,206
Texas 87,800
Louisiana 61,950
Virginia[1] 48,070
Tennessee 17,000
Florida 2,350
Arkansas 950
MARCH 12TH.--Gen. Winder moved the passport office up to the corner of
Ninth and Broad Streets.
The office at the corner of Ninth and Broad Streets was a filthy one; it
was inhabited--for they slept there---by his rowdy clerks. And when I
stepped to the hydrant for a glass of water, the tumbler repulsed me by
the smell of whisky. There was no towel to wipe my hands with, and in
the long basement room underneath, were a thousand garments of dead
soldiers, taken from the hospitals and the battle-field, and exhaling a
most disagreeable, if not deleterious, odor.
MARCH 13TH.--Nevertheless, I am (temporarily) signing my name to the
passports, yet issued by the authority of the Secretary of War. They are
filled up and issued by three or four of the Provost Marshal's clerks,
who are governed mainly by my directions, as neither Col. Porter nor the
clerks, nor Gen. Winder himself, have the slightest idea of the
geography of the country occupied by the enemy. The clerks are all
Marylanders, as well as the detectives, and the latter intend to remain
here to my great chagrin.
MARCH 14TH.--The Provost Marshal, Col. Porter, has had new passports
printed, to which his own name is to be appended. I am requested to sign
it for him, and to instruct the clerks generally.
MARCH 15TH.--For several days troops have been pouring through the city,
marching down the Peninsula. The enemy are making demonstrations against
Yorktown.
MARCH 16TH.--I omitted to note in its place the gallant feat of
Commodore Buchanan with the iron monster Merrimac in Hampton Roads. He
destroyed two of the enemy's best ships of war. My friends, Lieutenants
Parker and Minor, partook of the glory, and were severely wounded.
MARCH 17TH.--Col. Porter has resigned his provost marshalship, and is
again succeeded by Capt. Godwin, a _Virginian_, and I like him very
well, for he is truly Southern in his instincts.
MARCH 18TH.--A Mr. MacCubbin, of Maryland, has been appointed by Gen.
Winder the Chief of Police. He is wholly illiterate, like the rest of
the policemen under his command.
MARCH 19TH.--Mr. MacCubbin, whom I take to be a sort of Scotch-Irishman,
though reared in the mobs of Baltimore, I am informed has given some
passports, already signed, to some of his friends. This interference
will produce a rupture between Capt. Godwin and Capt. MacCubbin; but as
the former is a Virginian, he may have the worst of it in the bear
fight.
MARCH 20TH.--There is skirmishing everyday on the Peninsula. We have not
exceeding 60,000 men there, while the enemy have 158,000. It is fearful
odds. And they have a fleet of gun-boats.
MARCH 21ST.--Gen. Winder's detectives are very busy. They have been
forging prescriptions to _catch_ the poor Richmond apothecaries. When
the brandy is thus obtained it is confiscated, and the money withheld.
They drink the brandy, and imprison the apothecaries.
MARCH 22D.--Capt. Godwin, the Provost Marshal, was swearing furiously
this morning at the policemen about their iniquitous _forgeries_.
MARCH 23D.--Gen. Winder was in this morning listening to something
MacCubbin was telling him about the Richmond _Whig_. It appears that, in
the course of a leading article, enthusiastic for the cause, the editor
remarked, "we have arms and ammunition now." The policemen, one and all,
interpreted this as a violation of the order to the press to abstain
from speaking of the arrivals of arms, etc. from abroad. Gen. Winder,
without looking at the paper, said in a loud voice, "Go and arrest the
editor--and close his office!" Two or three of the policemen started
off on this errand. But I interposed, and asked them to wait a moment,
until I could examine the paper. I found no infraction of the order in
the truly patriotic article, and said so to Gen. Winder. "Well," said
he, "if he has not violated the order, he must not be arrested." He took
the paper, and read for himself; and then, without saying anything more,
departed.
When he was gone, I asked MacCubbin what was the phraseology of the
order that "had been served on the editors." He drew it from his pocket,
saying it had been shown to them, _and not left with them_. It was in
the handwriting of Mr. Benjamin, and signed by Gen. Winder. And I
learned that all the orders, sumptuary and others, had been similarly
written and signed. Mr. Benjamin used the pencil and not the pen in
writing these orders, supposing, of course, they would be copied by Gen.
W.'s clerks. But they were not copied. The policemen threaten to stop
the _Examiner_ soon, for that paper has been somewhat offensive to the
_aliens_ who now have rule here.
MARCH 24TH.--Gen. Walker, of Georgia--the same who had the scene with
Col. Bledsoe--has resigned. I am sorry that the Confederate States must
lose his services, for he is a brave man, covered with honorable scars.
He has displeased the Secretary of War.
MARCH 25TH.--Gen. Bonham, of South Carolina, has also resigned, for
being overslaughed. His were the _first_ troops that entered Virginia to
meet the enemy; and because some of his three months' men were
reorganized into fresh regiments, his brigade was dissolved, and his
commission canceled.
Price, Beauregard, Walker, Bonham, Toombs, Wise, Floyd, and others of
the brightest lights of the South have been somehow successively
obscured. And Joseph E. Johnston is a doomed fly, sooner or later, for
he said, not long since, that there could be no hope of success as long
as Mr. Benjamin was Secretary of War. These words were spoken at a
dinner-table, and will reach the ears of the Secretary.
MARCH 26TH.--The apothecaries arrested and imprisoned some days ago have
been tried and acquitted by a court-martial. Gen. Winder indorsed on the
order for their discharge: _"Not approved, and you may congratulate
yourselves upon escaping a merited punishment."_
MARCH 27TH.--It is said Mr. Benjamin has been dismissed, or resigned.
MARCH 28TH.--Mr. Benjamin has been promoted. He is now Secretary of
State.
His successor in the War Department is G. W. Randolph, a lawyer of
modest pretensions, who, although he has lived for several years in this
city, does not seem to have a dozen acquaintances. But he inherits a
name, being descended from Thomas Jefferson, and, I believe, likewise
from the Mr. Randolph in Washington's cabinet. Mr. Randolph was a
captain at Bethel under Magruder; and subsequently promoted to a
colonelcy. Announcing his determination to quit the military service
more than a month ago, he entered the field as a competitor for the seat
in Congress left vacant by the death of President Tyler. Hon. James
Lyons was elected, and Col. Randolph got no votes at all.
MARCH 30TH.--Gen. Lee is to have command of all the armies--but will not
be in the field himself. He will reside here. Congress passed an act to
create a commanding general; but this was vetoed, for trenching on the
executive prerogative--or failed in some way. The proceedings were in
secret session.
MARCH 31ST.--Gen. Joseph E. Johnston is to command on the Peninsula. The
President took an affectionate leave of him the other day; and Gen. Lee
held his hand a long time, and admonished him to take care of his life.
There was no necessity for him to endanger it--as had just been done by
the brave Sydney Johnston at Shiloh, whose fall is now universally
lamented. This Gen. Johnston (Joseph E.) I believe has the misfortune to
be wounded in most of his battles.