as been relieved from command.

We have taken, and paroled, within the last twelve or fifteen weeks, no
less than _forty odd thousand prisoners_! The United States must _owe_
us some thirty thousand men. This does not look like progress in the
work of subjugation.

Horrible! I have seen men just from Manassas, and the battle-field of
the 30th August, where, they assure me, hundreds of dead Yankees still
lie unburied! They are swollen "as large as cows," say they, "and are as
black as crows." No one can now undertake to bury them. When the wind
blows from that direction, it is said the scent of carrion is distinctly
perceptible at the _White House in Washington_. It is said the enemy
are evacuating Alexandria. I do not believe this.

A gentleman (Georgian) to whom I gave a passport to visit the army,
taking two substitutes, over forty-five years of age, in place of two
sick young men in the hospitals, informs me that he got upon the ground
just before the great battle at Sharpsburg commenced. The substitutes
were mustered in, and in less than an hour after their arrival, one of
them was shot through the hat and hair, but his head was untouched. He
says they fought as well as veterans.

SEPTEMBER 26TH.--The press here have no knowledge of the present
locality of Gen. Lee and his army. But a letter was received from Gen. L.
at the department yesterday, dated on this side of the Potomac, about
eighteen miles above Harper's Ferry.

It is stated that several hundred prisoners, taken at Sharpsburg, are
paroled prisoners captured at Harper's Ferry. If this be so (and it is
said they will be here to-night), I think it probable an example will be
made of them. This unpleasant duty may not be avoided by our government.

After losing in killed and wounded, in the battle of Sharpsburg, ten
generals, and perhaps twenty thousand men, we hear no more of the
advance of the enemy; and Lee seems to be lying _perdue_, giving them an
opportunity to ruminate on the difficulties and dangers of
"subjugation."

I pray we may soon conquer a peace with the North; but then I fear we
shall have trouble among ourselves. Certainly there is danger, after the
war, that Virginia, and, perhaps, a sufficient number of the States to
form a new constitution, will meet in convention and form a new
government.

Gen. Stark, of Mississippi, who fell at Sharpsburg, was an acquaintance
of mine. His daughters were educated with mine at St. Mary's Hall,
B