"
"You adhere more than ever, I see, to your opinion that we are going to
fail?"
"It is not an opinion, my dear colonel, but a certainty."
My head sank. In the army I had been hopeful. When I came to Richmond,
those high intelligences, John M. Daniel and Mr. X-----, did not even
attempt to conceal their gloomy views.
"I see you think me a croaker," said Mr. X-----, tranquilly smoking,
"and doubtless say to yourself, colonel, that I am injudicious in thus
discouraging a soldier, who is fighting for this cause. A year ago I
would not have spoken to you thus, for a year ago there was still some
hope. Now, to discourage you--if thinking men, fighting for a
principle, like yourself, _could_ be discouraged--would result in no
injury: for the cause is lost. On the contrary, as the friend of that
most excellent gentleman, your father, I regard it as a sort of duty to
speak thus--to say to you 'Don't throw away your life for nothing. Do
your duty, but do no more than your duty, for we are doomed.'"
I could find no reply to these gloomy words.
"The case is past praying for," said Mr. X----- composedly, "the whole
fabric of the Confederacy at this moment is a mere shell. It is going
to crumble in the spring, and another flag will float over the Virginia
capitol yonder--what you soldiers call 'The Gridiron.
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