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

[432] by General T. J. Wharton, in the Executive Office at Jackson in 1866, purporting to be a message prepared by President Davis, to be sent to Congress, giving his reasons for withholding from you any further command in the Confederate Army. I find it to agree wonderfully with my recollections of the contents of that paper. The synopsis is somewhat meagre in elaboration and detail, but, with some few omissions, it is substantially correct, I think. First, in the charges stated in regard to your conduct and course in the Valley before the battle of Manassas; then of what is said of your movement from Manassas and preliminary to it; then the accusations against you at Yorktown, at Seven Pines, and at Vicksburg; and the alleged misconduct in Georgia, are all given substantially correct. As to the omissions I allude to, I think it is stated in the original paper that you were ordered to take command of Bragg's army in January, 1863, if it appeared to you to be advisable, but that you sustained Bragg, expressed confidence, etc., in him. Then you are taken to task for remaining in Tennessee instead of going to Mississippi, where you ought to have been, and where you did not go until expressly ordered. I think another omission is, that you were charged with the loss of rolling-stock on the railroad above Big Black, in July, 1863, which could have been saved easily by making a temporary bridge at Jackson. I think, if the original paper ever sees daylight, it will show the synopsis and these omissions to be substantially given as stated.