of the Express Company, get enough to eat. Potatoes sell at $1 per
quart; chickens, $35 per pair; turnip greens, $4 per peck! An ounce of
meat, daily, is the allowance to each member of my family, the cat and
parrot included. The pigeons of my neighbor have disappeared. Every day
we have accounts of robberies, the preceding night, of cows, pigs,
bacon, flour--and even the setting hens are taken from their nests!

APRIL 12TH.--Cloudy--rained in the afternoon.

This is the anniversary of the first gun of the war, fired at Fort
Sumter.

It is still said and believed that Gen. Lee will take the initiative,
and attack Grant. The following shows that we have had another success:

"MOBILE, April 11th, 1864.

"TO GEN. S. COOPER, A. & I. GENERAL.

"The following report was received at Baton Rouge, on the 3d inst.,
from the Surgeon-General of Banks's army: We met the enemy near
Shreveport. Union force repulsed with great loss. How many can you
accommodate in hospitals at Baton Rouge? Steamer Essex, or Benton,
destroyed by torpedoes in Red River, and a transport captured by
Confederates.

"Farragut reported preparing to attack Mobile. Six monitors coming
to him. The garrisons of New Orleans and Baton Rouge were very much
reduced for the purpose of increasing Banks's forces.

"D. H. MAURY, _Major-General Commanding_."

APRIL 13TH.--A clear, but cool day. Again planted corn, the other having
rotted.

There is an unofficial report that one of our torpedo boats struck the
Federal war steamer Minnesota yesterday, near Newport News, and damaged
her badly.

I learn (from an official source) to-day that Gen. Longstreet's corps is
at Charlottesville, to co-operate with Lee's army, which will soon move,
no doubt.

Gen. Bragg received a dispatch yesterday, requesting that commissary
stores for Longstreet be sent to Charlottesville, and he ordered his
military secretary to direct the Commissary-General accordingly. To this
Col. Northrop, C. G. S., took exceptions, and returned the paper,
calling the attention of Gen. B.'s secretary to the Rules and
Regulations, involving a matter of red tape etiquette. The C. G. S. can
only be _ordered_ or _directed_ by the Secretary of War. Gen. B. sent
the paper to the Secretary, with the remark that if he is to be
restricted, etc., his usefulness must be necessarily diminished. The
Secretary sent for Col. N., and I suppose pacified