ern papers to be 20,000, and some say
his entire loss was fully 40,000. So much for his march over the
Rappahannock and his flight back again. If he is not satisfied, Lee will
try him again.

MAY 24TH, SUNDAY.--We have had a fortnight of calm, dry, and warm
weather. There is a hazy atmosphere, and the sun rises and sets wearing
a blood-red aspect. At night the moon, dimly and indistinctly seen (now
a crescent), has a somber and baleful appearance. This is strange at
this season of the year; it is like Indian summer in May. The ground is
dry and crusted, and apprehensions are felt for the crops, unless we
have rain in a few days. My poor little garden has suffered for
moisture, but the area is so small I am enabled to throw water over it
in the evening. My beets, tomatoes, early potatoes, and lettuce look
pretty well, though not so far advanced, in consequence of the late
spring, as I have seen them in Burlington. But they are a great comfort
to me. I work them, water them, and look at them, and this is what the
French would call a _distraction_. I have abundance of roses,--this is
the city of roses. And my cherries are coming on finely,--I know not yet
what kind they are; but it relieves the eye to gaze on them. And then my
neighbor has a pigeon-house, and the birds come into my yard and are fed
by my daughters, being pretty and tame. I sit for hours watching them.

Alas! this cruel war! But independence will be ample compensation. Our
posterity will thank us for our sacrifices and sufferings. Yet all do
not suffer. The Gil Blases, by their servility and cringing to their
patrons, the _great_ men in power, and only great because they have
patronage to bestow, which is power, are getting rich. Even adroit
clerks are becoming wealthy. They procure exemptions, discharges, and
contracts for the speculators for heavy bribes, and invest the money
immediately in real estate, having some doubts as to its ultimate
redemption, and possibly indifferent as to the fate of the country, so
that their own prosperity be secure. After the war the rascals and
traitors will be rich, and ought to be marked and exposed.

MAY 25TH.--Dispatches from the West inform us that three attempts to
carry the city of Vicksburg by assault have been repulsed with heavy
loss. Johnston is on the enemy's flank and rear, engendering a new army
with rapidity, and if the garrison can hold out a little while, the city
may be safe.

Gens. Ewell and A. P. Hil