ds on the Peninsula. President Tyler
had a villa near Hampton, which the Yankees despoiled in a barbarous
manner. They cut his carpets, defaced the pictures, broke the statues,
and made kindling wood of the piano, sofas, etc.

AUGUST 10TH.--Mr. Benjamin is a frequent visitor at the department, and
is very sociable: some intimations have been thrown out that he aspires
to become, some day, Secretary of War. Mr. Benjamin, unquestionably,
will have great influence with the President, for he has studied his
character most carefully. He will be familiar not only with his "likes,"
but especially with his "dislikes." It is said the means used by Mr.
Blair to hold Gen. Jackson, consisted not so much in a facility of
attaching strong men to him as his friends, but in aiming fatal blows at
the great leaders who had incurred the enmity of the President. Thus
Calhoun was incessantly pursued.

AUGUST 11TH.--There is a whisper that something like a rupture has
occurred between the President and Gen. Beauregard; and I am amazed to
learn that Mr. Benjamin is inimical to Gen. B. I know nothing of the
foundation for the report; but it is said that Beauregard was eager to
pass with his army into Maryland, immediately after the battle, and was
prevented. It is now quite apparent, from developments, that a small
force would have sufficed to take Washington, a few days or weeks after
the battle. But was Beauregard aware of the fact, before the opportunity
ceased to exist? It is too late now!

AUGUST 12TH.--There is trouble with Mr. Tochman, who was authorized to
raise a regiment or so of foreigners in Louisiana. These troops were
called (by whom?) the Polish Brigade, though, perhaps, not one hundred
Polanders were on the muster-rolls; Major Tochman being styled _General_
Tochman by "everybody," he has intimated to the President his
expectation of being commissioned a brigadier. The President, on his
part, has promptly and emphatically, as is sometimes _his_ wont,
declared his purpose to give him no such commission. He never, for a
moment, thought of making him more than a colonel. To this the major
demurs, and furnishes a voluminous correspondence to prove that his
claims for the position of brigadier-general had been recognized by the
Secretary of War.

AUGUST 13TH.--The President sent to the department an interesting letter
from Mr. Zollicoffer, in Tennessee, relating to the exposed condition of
the country, and its capacities for defe