Lee and Longstreet.

My friend Major Norris then took me to the President's office and
introduced me to the aides-de-camp of the President--viz., Colonels
Wood, Lee, and Johnston. The two latter are sons to General Lee and
General Albert Sidney Johnston, who was killed at Shiloh.

Major Norris then took me to the capitol, and introduced me to Mr
Thompson the librarian, and to Mr Meyers, who is now supposed to look
after British interests since the abrupt departure of Mr Moore, the
Consul. I was told that Mr Moore had always been considered a good
friend to the Southern cause, and had got into the mess which caused his
removal entirely by his want of tact and discretion. There is a fine
view from the top of the capitol; the librarian told me that last year
the fighting before Richmond could easily be seen from thence, and that
many ladies used to go up for that purpose. Every one said, that
notwithstanding the imminence of the danger, the population of Richmond
continued their daily avocations, and that no alarm was felt as to the
result.

The interior of the capitol is decorated with numerous flags captured
from the enemy. They are very gorgeous, all silk and gold, and form a
great contrast to the little bunting battle flags of the Confederates.
Amongst them I saw two colours which had belonged to the same regiment,
the 37th New York (I think). These were captured in different battles;
and on the last that was taken there is actually inscribed as a victory
the word _Fairoaks_, which was the engagement in which the regiment had
lost its first colour.

Mr Butler King, a member of Congress, whose acquaintance I had made in
the Spottswood Hotel, took me to spend the evening at Mrs S----'s, a
charming widow, for whom I had brought a letter from her only son,
aide-de-camp to General Magruder, in Texas.

Mrs S---- is clever and agreeable. She is a highly patriotic Southerner;
but she told me that she had stuck fast to the Union until Lincoln's
proclamation calling out 75,000 men to coerce the South, which converted
her and such a number of others into strong Secessionists. I spent a
very pleasant evening with Mrs S----, who had been much in England, and
had made a large acquaintance there.

Mr Butler King is a Georgian gentleman, also very agreeable and well
informed. It is surprising to hear the extraordinary equanimity with
which he and hundreds of fellow-sufferers talk of their entire ruin and
the total destruction