Chapter 44:
- Generals Beauregard and Hardee meet, by appointment, at Augusta. -- they hold a conference at Green's Cut Station with Generals D. H. Hill and G. W. Smith. -- Military situation as there developed, and plan adopted and forwarded to the War Department, with General Beauregard's endorsement. -- disappointment as to the number of troops. -- order to General Stevenson. -- enemy begins his forward movement on 1st of February. -- disposition of his forces on the March. -- General Beauregard's plan for opposing him. -- he Advises concentration at Columbia, and abandonment of sea-coast cities and towns. -- his plan of operations, if aided by the Government. -- ordered to resume the command of General Hardee's Department. -- General Beauregard's instructions to General Wheeler. -- telegram to General Cooper. -- Tardiness of General Hardee in evacuating Charleston. -- General Beauregard in Columbia. -- Confers with General Hampton and the Mayor. -- General Hardee's anxiety. -- General Beauregard goes again to Charleston. -- finds no definite steps taken for the evacuation. -- his instructions to General Hardee. -- despatches to General Lee. -- returns to Columbia. -- General Beauregard orders Quartermaster and Commissary of Subsistence to remove stores from that City. -- General Hardee becomes 11. -- his command turned over to General McLaws. -- General Beauregard's telegrams to General Lee.
On his arrival at Augusta, General Beauregard was met by Lieutenant-General Hardee, who had been invited to await him there. The object of their conference was to adopt a plan for opposing the probable immediate advance of Sherman from Savannah, Beaufort, the southeastern portion of South Carolina, and the whole extent of the Confederate line, along the Salkehatchie and the Combahee. Major-General D. H. Hill, commanding the Subdistrict of Augusta, and Major-General G. W. Smith, commanding the ‘Georgia reserves,’ occupied at that time the defensive line of Briar Creek, some twenty-five miles south of Augusta, with their headquarters at or near Green's Cut Station, on the Augusta and Savannah Railroad. General Beauregard was desirous that both of them should be present at the projected meeting; and as they could not, just then, absent themselves from their commands, it was decided that Generals Beauregard and Hardee should go to them.
