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

You have been instructed by the President to proceed to Dalton and take command of the army now under the charge of Lieutenant-General Hardee. You were also informed that you would there receive fuller instructions. Such I now aim, in behalf of this department, to communicate.

It is apprehended the army may have been, by recent events, somewhat disheartened, and deprived of ordnance and material. Your presence, it is hoped, will do much to reestablish hope and inspire confidence, and through such influence, as well as by the active exertions you are recommended to make, men who have straggled may be recalled to their standards, and others, roused to the dangers to which further successes of the enemy must expose the more