Chapter I: Preface

This Diary was written with the knowledge of the President and the Secretary of War. I informed them of it by note. They did not deprecate criticism on their official conduct; for they allowed me still to execute the functions of a very important position in the Government until the end of its career.

My discriminating friends will understand why I accepted the poor title of a clerkship, after having declined the _Chargeship_ to Naples, tendered by Mr. Calhoun during the administration of President Polk.

J. B. J.

ONANCOCK, Accomac Co., Va.,

_March_, 1866.

CONTENTS.

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
manoeuvring 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