among the passengers, and this
has cast a shade of disappointment over the family.

A few pistols and crackers are fired by the boys in the streets--and
only a few. I am alone; all the rest being at church. It would not be
safe to leave the house unoccupied. Robberies and murders are daily
perpetrated.

I shall have no turkey to-day, and do not covet one. It is no time for
feasting.

DECEMBER 26TH.--No army news. No papers. No merriment this Christmas.
Occasionally an _exempt_, who has speculated, may be seen drunk; but a
somber heaviness is in the countenances of men, as well as in the sky
above. Congress has adjourned over to Monday.

DECEMBER 27TH.--From Charleston we learn that on Christmas night the
enemy's shells destroyed a number of buildings. It is raining to-day:
better than snow.

To-day, Sunday, Mr. Hunter is locked up with Mr. Seddon, at the war
office. No doubt he is endeavoring to persuade the Secretary not to
relinquish office. Mr. S. is the only Secretary of War over whom Mr.
Hunter could ever exercise a wholesome influence. Mr. Stephens, the
Vice-President, is still absent; and Mr. H. is president of the Senate.

Mr. Hunter is also a member of the Committee on Finance, and the
protracted consultations may refer mainly to that subject--and a
difficult one it is. Besides, if this revolution be doomed by Providence
to failure, Mr. Hunter would be the most potent negotiator in the
business of reconstruction. He has great interests at stake, and would
save his property--and of course his life.

Another letter from Gov. Vance demands the return of some 300 bales of
cotton loaned the Confederate States. He likewise applies for the
extension of a detail of a North Carolina soldier, "for satisfactory
reasons."

DECEMBER 28TH.--Averill has escaped, losing a few hundred men, and his
wagons, etc. The Chesapeake, that sailed out of New York, and was
subsequently taken by the passengers (Confederates), was hotly followed
to Canada, where it was surrendered to the British authorities by the
United States officers, after being abandoned.

DECEMBER 29TH.--A letter from the President, for the Secretary of War,
marked "private," came in to-day at 2 P.M. Can it be an acceptance of
his resignation?

A resolution has been introduced in the House of Representatives to
inquire into the fact of commissioned officers doing clerical duties in
Richmond receiving "allowances," which, with their pay, make their
compe