eight days' rations; and if Grant leaves Chattanooga to
interfere with the plan, Gen. Johnston is to follow and fall upon his
rear, etc. Gen. Longstreet approves the plan--is eager for it, I infer
from his dispatch about corn; and the members of Congress are in favor
of it. If practicable, it ought to be begun immediately; and I think it
will be.

A bright windy day--snow gone.

The Federal General Sherman, with 30,000 men, was, at the last dates,
still marching southeast of Jackson, Miss. It is predicted that he is
rushing on his destruction. Gen. Polk is retreating before him, while
our cavalry is in his rear. He cannot keep open his communications.

FEBRUARY 17TH.--Bright and very cold--freezing all day. Col. Myers has
written a letter to the Secretary, in reply to our ordering him to
report to the Quartermaster-General, stating that he considers himself
the Quartermaster-General--as the Senate has so declared. This being
referred to the President, he indorses on it that Col. Myers served long
enough in the United States army to know his status and duty, without
any such discussion with the Secretary as he seems to invite.

Yesterday Congress consummated several measures of such magnitude as
will attract universal attention, and which must have, perhaps, a
decisive influence in our struggle for independence.

Gen. Sherman, with 30,000 or 40,000 men, is still advancing deeper into
Mississippi, and the Governor of Alabama has ordered the non-combatants
to leave Mobile, announcing that it is to be attacked. If Sherman
_should go on_, and succeed, it would be the most brilliant operation
of the war. If he goes on and fails, it will be the most disastrous--and
his surrender would be, probably, like the surrender of Lord Cornwallis
at Yorktown. He ought certainly to be annihilated.

I have advised Senator Johnson to let my nephew's purpose to bring Gen.
Holmes before a court-martial lie over, and I have the papers in my
drawer. The President will probably promote Col. Clark to a
brigadiership, and then my nephew will succeed to the colonelcy; which
will be a sufficient rebuke to Gen. H., and a cataplasm for my nephew's
wounded honor.

The _Examiner_ has whipped Congress into a modification of the clause
putting assistant editors and other employees of newspaper proprietors
into the army. They want the press to give them the meed of praise for
their bold measures, and to reconcile the people to the tax, militia,
and