in possession of the enemy. Gen. Stuart
suggested that a man familiar with their use be sent along with them, as
they are dangerous weapons.

We have a report, to-day, that our expedition from this city has
succeeded in boarding and capturing two of the enemy's gun-boats in the
Rappahannock.

AUGUST 26TH.--H. C. ----, a mad private, and Northern man, in a Georgia
Regiment, writes to the President, proposing to take some 300 to 500 men
of resolution and assassinate the leading public men of the United
States--the war Abolitionists, I suppose. The President referred the
paper, without notice, to the Secretary of War.

Gen. Whiting writes that Wilmington is in imminent danger from a _coup
de main_, as he has but one regiment available in the vicinity. He says
he gives the government fair warning, and full information of his
condition; asking a small brigade, which would enable him to keep the
enemy at bay until adequate reinforcements could arrive. He also wants
two Whitworth guns to keep the blockaders at a more respectful distance,
since they captured one steamer from us, recently, nine miles below the
city, and blew up a ship which was aground. He says it is _tempting
Providence_ to suffer that (now) most important city in the Confederate
States to remain a day liable to sudden capture, which would effectually
cut us off from the rest of the world.

Gen. Beauregard telegraphs for a detail of 50 seamen for his iron-clads,
which he intends shall support Sumter, if, as he anticipates, the enemy
should make a sudden attempt to seize it--or rather its debris--where he
still has some guns, _still under our flag_. None of his vessels have
full crews. This paper was referred to the Secretary of the Navy, and he
returned it with an emphatic _negative_, saying that the War Department
had failed to make details from the army to the navy, in accordance with
an act of Congress, and hence none of our war steamers had full crews.

AUGUST 27TH.--There is trouble in the Conscription Bureau. Col.
Preston, the new superintendent, finds it no bed of roses, made for him
by Lieut.-Col. Lay--the lieutenant-colonel being absent in North
Carolina, sent thither to _compose_ the discontents; which may
complicate matters further, for they don't want Virginians to meddle
with North Carolina matters. However, the people he is sent to are
supposed to be _disloyal_. Gen. Pillow has applied to have Georgia in
the jurisdiction of his Bureau of Cons