[691]
Bragg, were measures of common prudence, and no more indicated an intention to abandon the place, than the sending the wagons of an army to the rear on a day of battle proves a foregone determination to abandon the field.
While General Bragg was at Atlanta, about the middle of July, we had no other conversation concerning the army there, than such as I introduced.
He asked me questions regarding its operations past or future — made no comments upon them, nor any suggestions, and had not the slightest reason to suppose that Atlanta would not be defended.
He told me that the object of his journey was to confer with Lieutenant-General Lee, and communicate with General E. K. Smith, in relation to reinforcements for me. He talked much more of affairs in Virginia than Georgia, asserting, what I believed, that Sherman's army outnumbered Grant's, and impressed me with the belief that his visits to me were unofficial.
A brief report by General Hood as Lieutenant-General, accompanies this.
Most respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
J. E. Johnston, General.
