gia, justice, not only to the people of Georgia, but the people of all the States, required that all the troops which were not actually necessary to the defence of Richmond, and to hold the enemy in check at the most vital points on the coast, should have been concentrated for the destruction of the Federal army in Georgia, which would, in all probability, have brought the war to a speedy termination.

"I have begged the President to send reinforcements to the army for the defence of Atlanta ever since the enemy were at Etowah. But a very small number have been sent, and, if I am correctly informed, part of the troops under General Hood's command have been ordered from this to other States.

"While we have been sorely pressed by the enemy, a camp of 30,000 Federal prisoners has been kept in the rear of our army, which has added greatly to our embarrassments, and has it seems required all the small force of Confederate reserves, organized by Major-General Cobb, with other occasional reinforcements, to guard them. The reserve force organized under the late 'Conscript Act for the State defence has been thus employed, I presume, by order of the President, and in the hour of her peril Georgia has not had a single one of them at the front with a musket in his hand to aid in her defence. Had the militia been at his command for such service as he might have ordered, and at such place as he might designate, the presumption is that the same remark might have been applicable to them, as other employment could, as in case of the local companies under the President's command, have been found for them at other places while the enemy were besieging Atlanta.

"Another remarkable fact deserves attention. During the whole march of the enemy upon Atlanta, and for more than a month after it was closely invested and shelled by the enemy, it never seems to have occurred to the President to make requisition upon me for the militia of Georgia to aid in repelling this formidable invasion' or these 'destructive raids,' and it is only when he is informed that I have an organization of gallant, fearless men, ready to defend the State against usurpations of power as well as invasions by the enemy, that he makes requisition upon me for this force and all others I can organize. I must express my astonishment, however, that you and the President should seem to be ignorant of the fact that this force was organized by me to aid in repelling the army of invasion, that it was placed by me under the command of General Johnston and afterwards of General Hood for the defence of Atlanta, and that the brave men of which it is composed, under the command of the general appointed by the President for the defence of the city, have taken their full share in the dangers, fatigues and sufferings of the campaign, and have acted with distinguished valor both upon the battle field and for over forty days in the trenches around the city of Atlanta, and that they formed the rear guard when Atlanta was evacuated, and brought off with them safe and in good order the reserve artillery of the army which was especially intrusted to them by the Commander-in-Chief. For all this no word of thanks or praise comes from the President to encourage them. They

were militia. Their generals and other officers were not appointed by the President and their services are ignored by him.

"In making this requisition it is quite clear that it was no part of the President's object to get these brave men into service. They were there at the time, in the trenches, among those who were nearest to the enemy, where they never faltered in a single instance. It was not done to produce harmony in the command, for the most perfect harmony has existed between me and both the generals who have commanded the army since the militia were called out, and it is well known that I placed them for the time under the absolute control of the Confederate General commanding. It was not done to increase the number in service at the front, for the President is too familiar with the obstacles thrown in my way by Confederate officers when I have attempted to compel men to go to the trenches, to have committed this mistake. It was certainly not done to cause Georgia to furnish her quota of troops required in like proportion of other States, for she has already furnished more than her just quota, aud to every call responded with more than were required; while she has borne the rigors of conscription executed with as much severity as in any other State. I hear of no similar requisition having been made upon any other State. While Georgia has more than filled every requisition made upon her in common with her sister States, and has borne her full share of conscription, and has for months had her reserved militia under arms from sixteen to fifty-five years of age, I am informed that even the Confederate reserves of other States from seventeen to eighteen, and from forty-five to fifty, have till very lately been permitted by the President to spend much of their time at home attending to their ordinary business. Without departing from legitimate inquiry as to the cause of this requisition, I might ask why this distinction is made against the good people of this State, and why her Confederate reserves are kept constantly in service, and why requisition is made for her whole militia, when the same is not required of any other State. It is quite clear that it was not made either to compel the State to do her just part, which she has always done, or to put more of her sons into active service for her defence, for every man called for by the requisition was in service before it was made. The President must then have had some other motive in making the requisition, and I think it not uncharitable under all the circumstances to conclude that the object was to grasp into his own hands the entire control of the whole reserve militia of the State, which would enable him to disband its present organization, and place in power over it his own partisans and favorites as major-generals, brigadier-generals etc., etc., in place of the distinguished officers who were appointed to command in conformity to the Constitution of the country and the laws of the State, and who have commanded the organization with so much honor to themselves, satisfaction to the troops, and advantage to the public service.

"Again, it is worthy of remark that the requisition is made upon me for the whole militia of the State-all I have organized and all I can organize

without limitation of time or place of service. If I comply with it the militia of Georgia, after the President has obtained absolute control over them, may be taken for the war from their State, as tens of thousands of their brave fellow citizens no v are, while Georgia and their homes are being overrun. If I am asked to trust the sound judgment and good faith of the President for their discharge and return to their homes at such times as their services are not indispensable in the military field, I cannot forget the faith that was violated last fall to thousands of Georgians who were organized under a requisition from the President to be employed in the local defence of important cities, and in repelling in emergencies the sudden or transient incursions of the enemy,' to be employed only when and so long as they might be needed,' with the privilege of remaining at home in the pursuit of their ordinary avocations unless when called for a temporary exigency to active duty.'

"Thousands of these men, organized for six months' service with the guarantees above mentioned, were called out early in September last and were kept constantly in service till the expiration of their term in March. During most of the time they were guarding no important city. There was no sudden emergency or transient incursion of the enemy, no exigency for the last four months of the time, and still they were kept in service in violation of the faith that had been pledged to them, and were denied the privilege of going home or attending to the 'pursuit of any of their ordinary avocations,' and this too after the contract under which they had entered the service had been pressed upon the consideration of the President.

"It is impossible for the agricultural and other industrial pursuits of the people to be saved from ruin if the whole reserve militia of the State from 16 to 55 are put permanently into the service as regular troops. Judging from the past, I cannot place them at the command of the President for the war without great apprehension that such would be their fate. Indeed, not even the President's promise to the contrary is found in the requisition you now make. I am not, therefore, willing to expose the whole reserve militia of Georgia to this injustice, and our agricultural and other interests to ruin when no other State is required to make any such sacrifice or to fill any such requisition.

"The Constitution of the Confederate States authorizes the States as well as the Confederacy to keep troops in time of war when actually invaded, as Georgia now is. Her militia have been organized and called into active service under her own laws for her own defence, and I do not feel that I am authorized to destroy her military organization at the behest of the President, or to surrender to him the command of the troops organized and retained by her by virtue of her reserved power for her own defence when greatly needed for that purpose, and which are her only remaining protection against the encroachments of centralized power. I therefore decline to comply with or fill this extraordinary requisition. While I refuse to gratify

the President's ambition in this particular, and to surrender the last vestige of the sovereignty of the State by placing the remainder of her militia under his control for the war, I beg to assure you that I shall not hesitate to order them to the front, and they will not shun the thickest of the fight when the enemy is to be met upon the soil of their beloved State. Nor will I withhold them from the temporary command of the Confederate general who controls the army during great emergencies when he needs their aid.

"I shall, however, retain the power to withdraw them and to furlough or disband them for a time to look to their agricultural and other vital interests which would otherwise be ruined by neglect, whenever I see they can be spared from the military field without endangering the safety of the State. Of this the Governor of the State at Milledgeville, where he is near the field of operations and can have frequent interviews with the commanding general, ought to be as competent to judge as the President of the Confederacy some hundreds of miles from the scene of action, charged with the defence of Richmond and all the other responsibilities which require his attention and divide his time.

"Georgia now has upon the soil of Virginia nearly fifty regiments of as brave troops as ever met the enemy in deadly conflict, not one of which ever faltered in the hour of trial. She has many others equally gallant aiding in the defence of other States. Indeed, the blood of her sons has crimsoned almost every battle-field east of the Mississippi from the first Manassas to the fall of Atlanta. Her gallant sons who still survive are kept by the President's orders far from her soil while their homes are being overrun, their wives and children driven out before the enemy and reduced to beggary and want, and their almost idolized State exposed to temporary subjugation and ruin. Experience having shown that the army of Tennessee with the aid of the militia force of the State is not able to withstand and drive back the overwhelming numbers of the army of invasion, as the Executive of Georgia, in behalf of her brave sons now absent in other States as well as of her whole people at home, I demand as an act of simple justice that such reinforcements be sent as are necessary to enable the army upon her soil to stop the progress of the enemy and dislodge and drive him back. In view of the fact that the permanent possession of Georgia by the enemy not only ruins her people, but cuts the Confederacy east of the Mississippi in two, and strikes a death blow at the Confederate Government itself, I trust this most reasonable request will be granted. If, however, I should be informed that the President will send no reinforcements and make no further effort to strengthen our defences, I then demand that he permit all the sons of Georgia to return to their own State and within her own limits to rally around her glorious flag-and as it flutters in the breeze in defiance of the foe, to strike for their wives and their children, their homes and their altars, and the green graves' of their kindred and sires; and I as their Executive promise that whoever else may be withdrawn from her defence, they will

drive the enemy back to her borders, or, overwhelmed and stricken down, they will nobly perish in one last grand and glorious effort to wrest the standard of her liberties and independence from the grasp of the oppressor and plant it immovably upon her sacred soil.

"Sir:-Your letter of the 12th ult. reached me some days since. Its tenor and spirit have caused painful surprise. It requires forbearance in reply to maintain the respect I would pay your station and observe the official propriety you have so transcended. I shall seek to notice only such portions as appropriately pertain to an official communication.

"The department, on the 30th of August, under the direction of the President, made a requisition upon you for the entire militia which had been or should be organized by you, that they might be employed to repel the 'formidable invasion of Georgia by the enemy, and to secure her from 'destructive raids.' The requisition was for militia in a state of organization. The appointment of the officers of militia is secured by the Constitution to the State from which they are drawn, and in proposing to accept organized militia, the officers legally appointed would necessarily accompany their

commands.

"The inducements to this call were several. You had in official communication stated that you had ten thousand militia organized, and you were known to be apparently busy in organizing others. Of these, a portion, it was known, were with the army of Tennessee in some auxiliary relation, and had rendered valuable service with that army in the defence of Georgia. Only a limited number, however, not believed to constitute half of the number reported by you to be actually organized, were so employed, and were, as has been announced by you, held there only at your pleasure, and for such time and during such operations as you might approve. The services of these gallant defenders of their State were so appreciated as to render it desirable that the full number, organized or to be organized, should be secured to repel the formidable invasion threatening to overrun the State; and both to impart greater unity and efficiency to the command of them and enable the general commanding to rely on the period and tenure of their services, it was necessary they should be in Confederate service, and subject not to your judgment or disposal, but to the control of the constitutional commander-in