The colonel tried his hand to-day at dictating answers to
certain letters. Together we pitched upon the proper replies, which, after
being marked with his pencil, I elaborated with the pen. These were first
approved by the Secretary, then signed by the Chief of the Bureau, and copied
by Mr. Scott.
To-day the colonel essayed a flight with his own plumage. I
followed his dictation substantially in the answers. But the moment the
Secretary's eyes rested upon them, they were promptly reversed. The
Secretary himself, suspecting how it was, indeed he saw the colonel's pencil
marks, brought them to me, while a humorous smile played upon his usually not
very expressive lip. When the colonel came in, and beheld what had been done,
he groaned, and requested me to write the proper answers. From that day he
ceased to have anything more to do with the correspondence than to sign his
name to the letters I prepared for him. He remarked to-day that if he was to
have nothing to do, he would do nothing.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 60-1
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