ave yet experienced. Intervention on the part of European
powers is the only hope of many. Failing that, no doubt a negro army
will be organized--and it might be too late!

And yet, with such a preponderance of numbers and material against us,
the wonder is that we have not lost all the sea-board before this. I
long since supposed the country would be penetrated and overrun in most
of its ports, during the second or third year of the war. If the
government would foster a spirit of patriotism, the country would always
rise again, after these invasions, like the water of the sea plowed by
ships of war. But the government must not crush the spirit of the people
relied upon for defense, and the rich must fight side by side with the
poor, or the poor will abandon the rich, and that will be an abandonment
of the cause.

It is said Gen. Lee is to be invested with dictatorial powers, so far as
our armies are concerned. This will inspire new confidence. He is
represented as being in favor of employing negro troops.

A dispatch from Lieut.-Gen. Hardee (to the President), December 24th,
1864, at Charleston, S. C., says he may have to take the field any
moment (against Sherman), and asks a chief quartermaster and chief
commissary. The President invokes the special scrupulosity of the
Secretary in the names of these staff officers.

DECEMBER 28TH.--Rained all night; warm.

A large stable burned down within sixty yards of our dwelling, last
night, and not one of the family heard the uproar attending it.

Gen. Bragg telegraphs the President that the enemy failed to reduce Fort
Fisher, and that the troops landed above the fort have re-embarked. But
he says the enemy's designs are not yet developed; and he is such an
unlucky general.

We found a caricature in the old black chest, of 1844, in which I am
engaged in fight with the elder Blair. Calhoun, Buchanan, etc. are in
the picture.

It is still believed that Gen. Lee is to be generalissimo, and most
people rejoice at it. It is said the President and Gen. Jos. E. Johnston
have become friends again.

DECEMBER 29TH.--Rained all night; spitting snow this morning.

Although Gen. Bragg announces that the enemy's fleet has disappeared off
Wilmington, still the despondency which has seized the croakers remains.
It has probably sailed against Charleston, to co-operate with Sherman.
Sherman says officially that he got, with Savannah, about 1000
prisoners, 150 heavy guns, nearly 200