great indignation was manifested.

DECEMBER 13TH.--One of the papers has a short account of the application
of Stone in its columns this morning. One of the reporters was present
at the interview. The article bore pretty severely upon the assumption
of power by the military commander of the department. Gen. Winder came
in during the day, and denied having promised to procure a passport for
Stone from Gen. Huger.

DECEMBER 14TH.--Nothing.

DECEMBER 15TH.--The President's private secretary, Capt. Josselyn, was
in to-day. He had no news.

DECEMBER 16TH.--We hear to-day that the loyal men of Kentucky have met
in convention and adopted an ordinance of secession and union with our
Confederacy.

DECEMBER 17TH.--Bravo, Col. Edward Johnson! He was attacked by 5000
Yankees on the Alleghany Mountains, and he has beaten them with 1200
men. They say Johnson is an energetic man, and swears like a trooper;
and instead of a sword, he goes into battle with a stout cane in his
hand, with which he belabors any skulking miscreant found dodging in the
hour of danger.

DECEMBER 18TH.--Men escaped from the Eastern Shore of Virginia report
that Mr. Custis had landed there, and remains quiet.

DECEMBER 19TH.--Judge Perkins came in to-day and denounced in bitter
terms the insane policy of granting passports to spies and others to
leave the country, when every Northern paper bore testimony that we were
betrayed by these people. He asked me how many had been permitted to go
North by Mr. Benjamin since the expiration of the time named in the
President's proclamation. This I could not answer: but suggested that a
resolution of inquiry might elicit the information. He desired me to
write such a resolution. I did so, and he departed with it. An hour
afterward, I learned it had been passed unanimously.

DECEMBER 20TH.--A man by the name of _Dibble_, the identical one I
passed on my way to Montgomery last spring, and whom I then thought
acted and spoke like a Yankee, is here seeking permission to go North;
he _says_ to Halifax. He confesses that he is a Yankee born; but has
lived in North Carolina for many years, and has amassed a fortune. He
declares the South does not contain a truer Southern man than himself;
and he says he is going to the British Provinces to purchase supplies
for the Confederacy. He brought me an order from Mr. Benjamin, indorsed
on the back of a letter, for a passport. I declined to give it; and he
departed in anger, say