Alfred Roman, The military operations of General Beauregard in the war between the states, 1861 to 1865

I. It would be as true to allege that General Beauregard was never relieved of his command at all, as to state that he was not ‘harshly deprived’ of it. Mr. Davis, who had before him, or at his disposal, every telegram and letter inserted in this text, could not have believed that General Beauregard had ‘voluntarily abandoned’ his command—in other words, permanently withdrawn from it, of his own free will—when it was so evident that the absence spoken of would only be for a short time, and that, ‘meanwhile,’ the command of the army would be intrusted to General Bragg. No better proof could be offered to show that both General Beauregard's intention and desire were to resume his command as soon as he could.

II. If Mr. Davis is correct in his second point, what becomes of General Beauregard's telegram of June 14th, where he says: ‘I am leaving for a while, on surgeon's certificate. I must have a short rest’? He had certainly not left Tupelo when that despatch was forwarded. He had therefore ‘notified his government,’ in the telegram and in the letter. His ‘government,’ therefore, knew, before his departure, that his intention was to leave. True, no ‘permission’—in the strict sense of the term—was asked of the War Department. But it was clearly with no thought of ignoring—still less of overriding—the authority of the War Department or of the Commander-in-Chief. No formal permission was asked, because General Beauregard believed that, under the circumstances, he could freely transport himself to any place in the Confederacy, even outside of his territorial command, without special leave from Richmond—all the more so, that he clearly indicated the precise localities to which he was going, the reasons for which he was leaving, and the length of time he proposed being absent.

III. Mr. Davis's assertion that ‘the order assigning another to the command he had abandoned could not be sent through him (General Beauregard), when he had departed and gone to a place where there was no telegraph and rarely a mail,’ is, indeed, extraordinary, to say the least of it. ‘Mobile’ was not an inaccessible place, nor was ‘Bladon Springs’ an unknown locality. General Bragg found no difficulty in notifying General Beauregard of the order superseding him; and the curt, unceremonious, official note of Mr. Randolph, dated Richmond, June 23d, also reached General Beauregard without difficulty or delay.