veral have told me that
the prediction has been marked in the Secretary's tablets, and that I am
marked for destruction if it be not verified. I reply that I would
rather be destroyed than that it should be fulfilled.

FEBRUARY 27TH.--Columbus is to be evacuated. Beauregard sees that it is
untenable with Forts Henry and Donelson in possession of the enemy. He
will not be caught in such a trap as that. But he is erecting a battery
at Island No. 10 that will give the Yankees trouble. I hope it may stay
the catalogue of disasters.

FEBRUARY 28TH.--These calamities may be a wholesome chastening for us.
We shall now go to work and raise troops enough to defend the country.
Congress will certainly pass the Conscription Act recommended by the
President.

CHAPTER XII.

Nashville evacuated.--Martial law.--Passports.--Com. Buchanan's naval
engagement.--Gen. Winder's blunders.--Mr. Benjamin Secretary of
State.--Lee commander-in chief.--Mr. G. W. Randolph Secretary of
War.

MARCH 1ST.--It is certain that the City of Nashville has been evacuated,
and will, of course, be occupied by the enemy. Gen. Johnston, with the
remnant of his army, has fallen down to Murfreesborough, and as that is
not a point of military importance, will in turn be abandoned, and the
enemy will drop out of the State into Alabama or Mississippi.

MARCH 2D.--Gen. Jos. E. Johnston has certainly made a skillful
retrograde movement in the face of the enemy at Manassas. He has been
keeping McClellan and his 210,000 men at bay for a long time with about
40,000. After the abandonment of his works it was a long time before the
enemy knew he had retrograded. They approached very cautiously, and
found that they had been awed by a few _Quaker guns--logs of wood_ in
position, and so painted as to resemble cannon. Lord, how the Yankee
press will quiz McClellan!

MARCH 3D.--But McClellan would not advance. He could not drag his
artillery at this season of the year; and so he is embarking his army,
or the greater portion of it, for the Peninsula.

MARCH 4TH.--We shall have stirring times here. Our troops are to be
marched through Richmond immediately, for the defense of Yorktown--the
same town surrendered by Lord Cornwallis to Washington. But its fall or
its successful defense now will signify nothing.

MARCH 5TH.--Martial law has been proclaimed.

MARCH 6TH.--Some consternation among the citizens--they dislike martial
law.

MARCH 7TH.--G