y there
as guerrillas.

The President has appointed his nephew, J. R. Davis, a
brigadier-general. I suppose no president could escape denunciation,
nevertheless, it is to be regretted that men of mind, men who wrought up
the Southern people, with their pens, to the point of striking for
national independence, are hurled into the background by the men who
arranged the programme of our government. De Bow was offered a lower
clerkship by Mr. Secretary Memminger, which he spurned; Fitzhugh
accepted the lower class clerkship Mr. M. offered him after a prolonged
hesitation; and others, who did more to produce the revolution than any
one of the high functionaries now enjoying its emoluments, are to be
found in the lowest subordinate positions; while Tom, Dick, and Harry,
never heard of before, young, and capable of performing military
service, rich, and able to live without office, are heads of bureaus,
chief clerks of departments, and staff-officers flourishing their stars!
Even this is known in the North, and they exult over it as a just
retribution on those who were chiefly instrumental in fomenting
revolution. But they forget that it was ever thus, and that our true
patriots and bold thinkers who furnish our lesser men, in greater
positions, with ideas, are still true and steadfast in the cause they
have advocated so long.

DECEMBER 7TH.--Last night was bitter cold, and this morning there was
ice on my wash-stand, within five feet of the fire. Is this the "sunny
South" the North is fighting to possess? How much suffering must be in
the armies now encamped in Virginia! I suppose there are not less than
250,000 men in arms on the plains of Virginia, and many of them who
survive the war will have cause to remember last night. Some must have
perished, and thousands, no doubt, had frozen limbs. It is terrible, and
few are aware that the greatest destruction of life, in such a war as
this, is not produced by wounds received in battle, but by disease,
contracted from exposure, etc., in inclement seasons. But the deadly
bullet claims its victims. A friend just returned from the battle-field
of June, near the city, whither he repaired to recover the remains of a
relative, says the scene is still one of horror. So great was the
slaughter (27th June) that we were unable to bury our own dead for
several days, for the battle raged a whole week, and when the work was
completed, the weather having been extremely hot, it was too late to