ate remedy for
the desperate case, and may be successful. If 200,000
efficient soldiers can be made of this material there is no
conjecturing when the next campaign may end. Possibly 'over
the border;' for a little success will elate our spirits
extravagantly, and the blackened ruins of our towns, and the
moans of women and children bereft of shelter, will appeal
strongly to the army for vengeance."

"March 19th.--Unless food and men can be had Virginia must
be lost. The negro experiment will soon be tested. Curtis
says that the letters are pouring into the department from
all quarters asking authority to raise and command negro
troops. 100,000 troops from this source might do wonders."

So ends the entries on this interesting subject in Mr. Jones' diary.
Though the conscientious war clerk ceased to record, the excitement and
effort of the advocates of the measure by no means slackened. Grant's
cordon around the city drew closer and tighter each day and hour,
continually alarming the inhabitants. Governor Smith gave the negro
soldier scheme his personal influence and attention. The newspapers
began clamoring for conscription. No little effort was made to raise a
regiment of free blacks and mulattoes in the latter days of January, and
early in February a rendezvous was established at Richmond, and a
proclamation was issued by the State authorities. A detail of white
officers was made, and enlistment began. The agitation of the subject in
Congress, though in secret session, gave some encouragement to the many
despairing and heart-sick soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia.[43]
Their chief commander, Lee, perhaps dreamed nightly that he commanded
200,000 negro troops _en masse_, and was driving the Yankees and their
Black Phalanx like chaff from off the "sacred soil" of the Old Dominion,
but, alas, such a dream was never to be realized.

About twenty negroes,[44] mostly of the free class, enlisted, went into
camp, and were uniformed in Confederate gray. These twenty men, three of
whom were slaves of Mr. Benjamin, Confederate Secretary of State, were
daily marched into the city and drilled by their white officers in the
Capitol Square, receiving the approving and congratulatory plaudits of
the ladies, who were always present.[45] However, no accessions were
gained to their ranks, consequently the scheme, to raise by enlistment a
regiment of blacks, was a fai