ary of War. He will be more polite.

Another letter to-day from Mr. Memminger, requesting that a company,
commanded by a son of his friend, Trenholm, of Charleston, be stationed
at Ashville, where his family is staying.

Lieut.-Gen. D. H. Hill has applied for a copy of Gen. Bragg's letter
asking his removal from his army. The President sends a copy to the
Secretary, who will probably comply, and there may be a personal affair,
for Bragg's strictures on Hill as a general were pretty severe.

There are rumors of a break in the cabinet, a majority, it is said,
having been in favor of Bragg's removal.

Bragg's disaster so shocked my son Custis that, at dinner, when asked
for rice, he poured water into his sister's plate, the pitcher being
near.

NOVEMBER 27TH.--Dark and gloomy. At 10 o'clock Gov. Vance, of North
Carolina, telegraphed the Secretary of War, asking if anything
additional had been heard from Bragg. The Secretary straightened in his
chair, and answered that he knew nothing but what was published in the
papers.

At 1 o'clock P.M. a dispatch was received from Bragg, dated at
_Ringgold, Ga._, some thirty miles from the battle-field of the day
before. Here, however, it is thought he will make a stand. But if he
could not hold his mountain position, what can he do in the plain? We
know not yet what proportion of his army, guns, and stores he got
away--but he must have retreated rapidly.

Meade is advancing, and another battle seems imminent.

To-day a countryman brought a game-cock into the department. Upon being
asked what he intended to do with it, he said it was his purpose to send
its left wing to Bragg!

NOVEMBER 28TH.--It rained last night. To-day there is an expectation of
a battle near Chancellorville, the battle-ground of June last. Meade is
certainly advancing, and Pickett's division, on the south side of the
James River, at Chaffin's Farm, is ordered to march toward Lee, guarding
the railroad, and the local defense men are ordered out.

My son Custis goes with his battalion to Chaffin's Farm in the morning.

There are rumors of six or eight thousand of the enemy marching up the
line of the James River against Petersburg, etc. We have also a rumor of
Gen. Rosser having captured the wagon train of two divisions of the
enemy in Culpepper County.

From Bragg not a word since his dispatch from Ringgold, Ga., and nothing
from Longstreet.

Gen. Whiting writes that a large number of Jews and others