e, and this refusal is recommended by Col. Gorgas, a Northern
man. They do not propose to immortalize "the President, the heads of
departments, and the principal generals." But Mr. Benjamin has nothing
else to do. Washington would accept no meed of praise until his great
work was accomplished.

CHAPTER XXX.

Situation at Wilmington.--Situation at Charleston.--Lincoln thinks there
is hope of our submission.--Market prices.--Ammunition turned over
to the enemy at Vicksburg.--Attack on Sumter.--Stringent conscription
order.--Disaffection in North Carolina.--Victory announced by Gen.
Bragg.--Peril of Gen. Rosecrans.--Surrender of Cumberland Gap.--
Rosecrans fortifying Chattanooga.--Mr. Seward on flag-of-truce
boat.--Burnside evacuating East Tennessee.--The trans-Mississippi
army.--Meade sending troops to Rosecrans.--Pemberton in Richmond.--
A suggestion concerning perishable tithes.

SEPTEMBER 1ST.--Another letter from Gen. Whiting, urging the government
by every consideration, and with all the ingenuity and eloquence of
language at his command, to save Wilmington by sending reinforcements
thither, else it must be inevitably lost. He says it will not do to rely
upon what now seems the merest stupidity of the enemy, for they already
have sufficient forces and means at their command and within reach to
capture the fort and city. He has but one regiment for its defense!

I saw to-day a telegraphic correspondence between the Secretary of War
and Gen. Buckner in regard to the invasion of Kentucky, the general
agreeing to it, being sure that with 10,000 men he could compel
Rosecrans to fall back, etc. But I suppose the fall of Vicksburg, and
the retreat from Pennsylvania, caused its abandonment.

Hon. Wm. Capeton, C. S. Senate, writes the Secretary on the subject of
compelling those who have hired substitutes now to serve themselves, and
he advocates it. He says the idea is expanding that the rich, for whose
benefit the war is waged, have procured substitutes to fight for them,
while the poor, who have no slaves to lose, have not been able to
procure substitutes. All will be required to fight, else all will be
engulfed in one common destruction. He will endeavor to get an
expression of opinion from the Legislature, about to assemble, and after
that he will advocate the measure in Congress, intimating that Congress
should be convened at an early day.

SEPTEMBER 2D.--We have no