taken, we will retaliate on the prisoners in our
possession.

Gen. Longstreet censured Gen. French for his conduct before Suffolk, and
the Secretary of War proposed that French be relieved, and sent before a
court of inquiry. The President vetoed this, saying such courts were
nuisances, and would not have him molested at this critical moment.

Gen. D. H. Hill writes that desertions in North Carolina are alarmingly
frequent; that deserters will soon be in arms; that papers and factions
exist there in favor of reconstruction, laboring to convince the people
that the State has been neglected by the Confederate States Government,
and he suggests summary punishments. The President directs the Secretary
to correspond with Gov. Vance on the subject.

Mr. Benjamin has had some pretty passports printed. He sends one to
Assistant Secretary Campbell for a Mr. Bloodgood and son to leave the
Confederate States. I hope there is no _bad_ blood in this incessant
intercourse with persons in the enemy's country. Just at this crisis, if
so disposed, any one going thither might inflict incalculable injury on
the cause of Southern independence.

MAY 16TH.--It appears, after the consultation of the generals and the
President yesterday, it was resolved not to send Pickett's division to
Mississippi, and this morning early the long column march through the
city northward. Gen. Lee is now stronger than he was before the battle.
Gen. Pickett himself, with his long, black ringlets, accompanied his
division, his troops looking like fighting veterans, as they are. And
two fine regiments of cavalry, the 2d and 59th North Carolina Regiments,
passed through the city this morning likewise.

A letter was received from Gen. Beauregard to-day, again protesting
against the movement of so many of his troops to Mississippi; 5000 on
the 5th, and more than 5000 on the 10th instant. He makes an exhibit of
the forces remaining in South Carolina and Georgia--about 4000 infantry,
5000 cavalry, and 6000 artillery, some 15,000 in all. He says the enemy
is still on the coast, in the rivers, and on the islands, and may easily
cut his communications with Savannah; and they have sufficient numbers
to take Charleston, in all probability, without passing the forts. He
says information of his weakness is sure to be communicated to the
enemy--and I think so too, judging from the number of passports
"allowed" by Judge Campbell and Mr. Benjamin!

There is some purpose o