r of the 19th inst. to
this department.

"In reply, you are respectfully informed that it is not deemed
judicious, unless in the last extremity, to resort to the means of
supply suggested. The patriotic motives that dictated the
suggestion are, however, appreciated and acknowledged.

"Your obedient servant,

"JAMES A. SEDDON,

"_Secretary of War_."

CHAPTER XXIV.

Removed into Clay Street.--Gen. Toombs resigned.--Lincoln dictator.--He
can call 3,000,000 of men.--President is sick.--His office is not a
bed of roses.--Col. Gorgas sends in his oath of allegiance.--
Confederate gold $5 for $1.--Explosion of a laboratory.--Bad weather
everywhere.--Fighting on the Mississippi River.--Conflict of views in
the Conscription Bureau.--Confederate States currency $10 for $1.--
Snow a foot deep, but melting.--We have no negro regiments in our
service.--Only 6000 conscripts from East Tennessee.--How seven were
paroled by one.--This is to be the crisis campaign.--Lee announces
the campaign open.

MARCH 1ST.--To-morrow we remove to new quarters. The lady's husband,
owning cottage, and who was confined for seven months among lunatics,
has returned, and there is not room for two families. Besides, Mrs. G.
thinks she can do better taking boarders, than by letting the house.
What a mistake! Beef sold yesterday for $1.25 per pound; turkeys, $15.
Corn-meal $6 per bushel, and all other articles at the same rates. No
salaries can board families now; and soon the expense of boarding will
exceed the incomes of unmarried men. Owners and tenants, unless engaged
in lucrative business, must soon vacate their houses and leave the city.

But we have found a house occupied by three widows in Clay Street. They
have no children. They mean to board soon among their relatives or
friends, and then we get the house; in the mean time, they have fitted
up two rooms for us. We should have gone yesterday, but the weather was
too bad. The terms will not exceed the rent we are now paying, and the
house is larger. I espied several fruit trees in the back yard, and a
space beyond, large enough for a smart vegetable garden. How delighted I
shall be to cultivate it myself! Always I have visions of peas, beans,
radishes, potatoes, corn, and tomatoes of my own raising! God bless the
widows sent for our relief in this dire necessity!

Met Judge Reagan yesterday, just f