A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital

A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital is a diary by John Beauchamp Jones, with the writer described as a clerk in the War Department of the Confederate States Government. The preface says the diary was written with the knowledge of the President and the Secretary of War. The diary records that the Secretary of War sent for the writer and said he required more assistance in his correspondence, then increasing daily.

The diary says the writer was installed at once, with Major Tyler, in the Secretary’s own office, with the duty to open and read the letters, noting briefly their contents on the back. One entry says that Gen. Lee is doing good service in bringing forward reinforcements from the South against the day of trial. A different entry notes that Provost Marshal Godwin is to leave and to be succeeded by a Marylander, Major Griswold. The diary says that a hard rain commenced falling this evening, and that such weather must cause severe suffering among the prisoners on Belle Isle, where there are not tents enough for so large a body of men.