General Joseph E. Johnston, Narrative of Military Operations During the Civil War

“ [249] to reenforce Bragg,” at that time, would have been evidence of the grossest incapacity. Your excellency will therefore pardon me, I am sure, for denying the existence of such evidence. I have ordered troops from Mississippi to Tennessee but twice. On both occasions the condition of affairs was very different from that existing at the time referred to. The first order was that given to the cavalry early in January; it was explained in paragraph IV. The second was given about the 13th of April, when Lieutenant-General Pemberton informed me that Grant had abandoned operations against Vicksburg, and was moving his army up the river, he supposed to join Rosecrans. He had no enemy before him; Vicksburg was no longer threatened. Bragg, on the other hand, could not fully cover the country which fed his troops. I therefore directed a force equal to that sent from Bragg to Pemberton in December last under your instructions, to be sent from Mississippi to Tennessee; intending, should Lieutenant-General Pemberton's surmise prove correct, to continue to draw troops from his army. But in a few days Lieutenant-General Pemberton reported the United States army returning; and the troops on the way to Bragg, none of which had arrived, were ordered back. This was about the 19th of April, when the Federal army was on the Mississippi in transports, or on the west side of the river, and Pemberton's condition far less unfavorable than it was at the time to which you refer, when the enemy had crossed the river and driven back his advanced troops.

In paragraph XXXI., in explaining your orders to General Bragg of May 22d, you say, “I knew ”