Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1865-04-04

Caste 1nunueri writes as follows OF the
condition of affairs lately at the rebel cap.
ital:
One hundred dollars were paid me 10
Confederate scrip for one dollar in gold, at
Castle Thunder, last Saturday. Outside
! the Castle. ! could have received one hun
dred and twenty-five. Greenbacks bought !
at thirty.6ve Confederate scrip for one.
Outside the castle they are worth about
forty five.
l paid last week thirty. Eve dollars per
dozen for eggs-before Sheridan tore up
the canal l got them for twelve. paid
six dollars per pound for -four last Fri.
ay, and thirty FIVE Tor sugar, (brown.) Tea
ls one hundred dollars per pound, coffee
forty nine and fifty, bacon eighteen dollars
per pound, beet fifteen.
The following estimates of the army
arrived at in this way. Men from each
regiment in the service were in the Castle
when l was, and in the hospital many
more. From each l would obtain, as far
as he knew it, the strength of his regiment,
compare his statement with that of others,
add up the final number agreed on for that
regiment with the numbers given az that
of regiments in the same brigade. To the
lsggreRate, giving the number in the bri.
gades, added these, found the strength of
the corps and so on. From such calcula.
tons concluded that Lee has now before
and between Petersburgh and Richmond
10000 men; and that Johnston had, MP TO
last week. AZ. 900, 600 of which are caval-
ry. Johnston's force is thus divided
Bragg, 5000; Hardee. 5000; Hampton,
(cavalry,) 1000, and Beauregord's army
10 sometimes called Johnston's army, Just
AS the Army of the Potomac is styled
Grants army; but Johnston has no particu.
lar army, being 10 command OF all the
forces in North Carolina.
The writer Of this letter was confined in
Castle Thunder six months, and uuder the
head of special cases, might give an indefi
mite number, any one of which, ere this
war, would have sent thrill of horror
through the country; but from the mass l
will be dainty, and select only a few.
In the hospital of Castle Thunder, in
ward B. in bed No. As lies an idiot boy, a
Virginian, son of An aged widowed mother
aged fifty years. This idiot is her last
child. She had tour--two fell at Freder.
icksburgh, and one at Gettysburgh. This
idiot ls now between seventeen and eigh.
teen years old, and is to be shot next Tues.
day for sleeping 90 his post. The boy is
insane beyond all peradventure. The
mother has 20 tic on earth but him. 1t is
hard, but discipline must be maintained ;
an example must be made; and the idiot.
not iii for soldier, would do for an exam
: Pile" And what of the old mother p
Judge Baxter, Confederate State Commits
siouer, says: "She'll be relieved of the
charge, aud the boy is fit for nothing else.''
The boys name is Nixon. More than 20
I exchanged citiz ns now in our lines can
t witness to this. What on earth will Bax.
ter be Fl for when the Confederate States
needs Commissioner?
There is cell in Richmond castle
Thunder) known as cell No. 3. This cell
] s four fest eight inches high, MCCool
: private il Harris light dragons, man
measuring elk feet and bait an inch, was
kept in the cell eleven months aud half
Cardinal Baiue's oubliette may be read as
: obsolete elsewhere, bui IN Richmond it is
obsolesceat. McCOOl had a ball aud g
chain on his leg all the time, the bal
weighing thirty-two pounds the chain ter
pounds. The rain penetrAtes that cell, and
+ on weekdays McCook lay in the wet. Blew.
d co months aud half passed, and he never
once stood straight He escaped Eve
weeks since, through q hospital window.
He had been transferred, sick.
The gold and general assets of the Mer.
chants and Mcdaniel Bank were posi-
. lively removed from Richmond three nights
= before McCooPs escape. They went OF
n the Southside road. Whether they were
a forwarded TO Danville or to Lyuchburp
!, from the junction l had no means of as
certaiuiug with positiveuess, but l think
Il they went to DanvilIe. The two percus
sion cap factories have gone the same road
all but the walls. The main part of the
a machinery of the Tredegar works is boxed
is up. Part Of it went the same way as tht
II specie. The other banks moved their spe.
Gle in the same manner a week later.
u The different government hospitals have
!, sent out agents to procure a supply of tooG
e for their various institutions. Endeavor:
q TO hurry up negro drill and negro enlist
:, ments are daily made, and all guns, sho
or rife. are gathered in Richmond, anG
d none have been sent away.
3 Davis, Benjamin and others of the GOV.
q eminent, spend their days urging the col.
O lection of gold and silver under the specie
act Their nights are spent at Myers over
> an innocent game of cards. Many of tht
e religious people, the "uuco righteous" say
!. the cause of the ConFederacy was lost by
q 1.-THE two Jews" Benjamin aud Davis; and
even ministers remark that in all his sol.
e emn appeals, Davis never once has asked
II TOR aid through the channel by which
T Christians are taught to expect it. "a re.
public without freedom and civiliz alton
| "'NASNS SHAlStI 10 "uhb STEPHENS 10
cused OF calling the Confederacv
There are about ten days supplies for the
9 army in Richmond. The army is not daily
J: ted from these now, but from what daily
arrives on the strap rails that constitute
+ the DAnVille and Richmond Railroad.
f There will be no counter revolution, and
e no firing Richmond. There is too much
D money and tobacco there to make a Mos
y COW Of it. Lee will not surrender, but
probably like Napoleon at Leipsic, cut his
way southwark for the States Sherman has
, passed He could be made to capitulate
IKE Mack at Ulm, but only by the moral
J force of Stephens, and Stephens, not Lee
will yet finish this business. He is work
ing away and in the right direction, too.
would here add that the senior and Jun
Tor reserves OF Virginia and North Carroll.
ma are almost to man leaguers