with gold,
having put in substitutes, and made their fortunes, are applying for
passage out of the country. They fear their substitutes will no longer
keep them out of the army. Gen. W. says they have passports from
Richmond, and that the spy who published in the North an account of the
defenses of Wilmington, had a passport from Richmond. The government
will never realize the injury of the loose passport system until it is
ruined.

Never have I known such confusion. On the 26th inst. the Secretary
ordered Gen. Pickett, whose headquarters were at Petersburg, to send a
portion of his division to Hanover Junction, it being apprehended that a
raid might be made in Lee's rear. Gen. P. telegraphs that the French
steam frigate was coming up the river (what for?), and that two Federal
regiments and three companies of cavalry menaced our lines on the south
side of the river. The Secretary sent this to Gen. Elzey, on this side
of the river, asking if his pickets and scouts could not get information
of the movements of the enemy. To-day Gen. E. sends back the paper,
saying his scouts could not cross the river and get within the enemy's
lines. So the government is in a fog--and if the enemy knew it, and it
may, the whole government might be taken before any dispositions for
defense could be made. Incompetency in Richmond will some day lose it.

Three o'clock P.M. The weather is clear, and Lee and Meade may fight,
and it may be a decisive battle.

I met Mr. Foote, of Tennessee, to-day. He asked me if I did not think
our affairs were in a desperate condition. I replied that I did not know
that they were not, and that when one in my position did not know, they
must be bad enough.

NOVEMBER 29TH.--The clerks were marched out into the muddy street this
morning in a cold rain, and stood there for hours, while the officers
were making up their minds when to start for the boat to convey them to
Drewry's Bluff, whence they are to march to Chaffin's Farm, provided the
officers don't change their minds.

There are reports of a repulse of the enemy by Lee yesterday, and also
of a victory by Bragg, but they are not traceable to authentic sources.

At 3 o'clock P.M. it is cold, but has ceased to rain.

The want of men is our greatest want, and I think it probable Congress
will repeal the Substitute Law, and perhaps the Exemption Act. Something
must be done to put more men in the ranks, or all will be lost. The rich
have contrived to ge