dered to reassemble his forces in North Alabama, to cut Sherman's
communications.

The news from Georgia is more cheering.

The commissioners (of prices) have reduced the schedule: it was
denounced universally. It is said by the _Examiner_ that the extravagant
rates, $30 per bushel for wheat, and $50 for bacon, were suggested by a
farmer in office.

Gen. Lee writes that he had directed Morgan to co-operate with Early,
but he was sick.

The enemy's account of our loss in the battle before Atlanta is
exaggerated greatly. Sherman's army is _doomed_, I think.

Seven P.M. No rain here, but my family were drenched in a hard shower at
Hanover Junction, and what was worse, they got no blackberries, the hot
sun having dried the sap in the bushes.

AUGUST 3D.--Cloudy, but no rain.

The press dispatches last night assert that still another raiding party,
besides Stoneman's, was dispersed or captured.

It is rumored to-day that Beauregard has sprung a mine under Grant's
fortifications. This may be so. _Later._ It was _not_ so.

AUGUST 4TH.--Clear and hot.

All quiet at Petersburg. President Lincoln was at Fortress Monroe on
Sunday last, after the explosion and its failure.

The Northern papers acknowledge that Grant sustained a terrible disaster
at Petersburg, losing in killed, wounded, and missing 5000. They say the
negro troops caused the failure, by running back and breaking the lines
of the whites. The blacks were pushed forward in front, and suffered
most.

From the same source we learn that our troops have penetrated
Pennsylvania, and laid the city of Chambersburg in ashes. This may be
so, as they have burned some half dozen of our towns, and are now daily
throwing shell into Charleston, Atlanta, and Petersburg.

A letter to the Secretary from J. Thompson, in Canada (per Capt. Hines),
was received to-day. He says the _work_ will not probably begin before
the middle of August. I know not what sort of work. But he says _much
caution is necessary_. I suppose it to be the destruction of the Federal
army depots, etc. in the United States.

Public meetings and the public press continue to denounce in unmeasured
terms the high schedule of prices recently sanctioned by the Commissary
and Quartermaster's bureaus. And, although the schedule has been
modified, much odium will attach to all concerned in it. A large farmer,
at the rates fixed for his products, would realize, perhaps, $200,000
per annum.

AUGUST 5TH.--H