JULY 11th.—Hot and dry, and the famine continues.
The Secretary of War intimated on Saturday that if the clerks of the bureaus would raise a fund and send an agent South to buy provisions, he would insure them transportation, etc. To-day he denies that he made the promise, and refuses to aid them.
The government now proposes to increase its schedule of prices from 300 to 500 per cent., thus depreciating its own credit. Before harvest the impressing agents allowed about $40 per barrel for flour; now, that we have a good harvest, about $130 will be paid, thus raising the price everywhere. Transportation is the expensive item.
A dispatch from Gen. Johnston, at Atlanta, says the enemy having flanked him with his cavalry, he has fallen back across the Chattahoochee.
Dispatches from Gen. S. D. Lee, Tupelo, state that a column of the enemy, 20,000 strong, is about marching from New Orleans against Mobile, and he fears he cannot spare men to resist them. The reserve class is not ready. Also that 15,000 of the enemy are marching from Lagrange, and he will have to dismount some of Forrest’s cavalry. Gen. E. K. Smith will not cross the Mississippi to assist in repelling the foe without orders. Orders have been sent from the Secretary of War—I fear too late!
Northern papers of the 8th inst. indicate a state of high excitement. Some there believe we have an army of 60,000 pouring into Pennsylvania. Gold was $2.65 for one.
There is some commotion in Grant’s army, and it is believed by some that he is about to retire down the river.
It is rumored that the prisoners heretofore confined at Point Lookout have been removed by the Federal Government.
At 7 P.M. we had a gentle shower, lasting more than an hour.