OPERATIONS IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE. [CHAP.XII.
MEMPHIS, November 5, 1861.
General A. SIDNEY JOHNSTON:
Have just received dispatch stating that you order unarmed twelvemonths' troops to be disbanded. This will have a demoralizing effect. If the Government will pay the value of arms, I will arm them with sporting guns within a reasonable time. Will you continue troops in camp and give me reasonable time to arm?
ISHAM G. HARRIS.
HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEPARTMENT, Bowling Green, Ky., November 5, 1861.
His Excellency Gov. ISHAM G. HARRIS, Nashville, Tenn.: I am not yet prepared to muster our of service the volunteers at Camps Cheatham, Trousdale, and Red Sulphur Springs, and it is within my hopes that before the time of muster, say fifteen days, it may be in your excellency's power to arm these troops, and thus enable me to retain them or some portion of them for the defense of your State, now endangered by the heavy masses in my front and those pressing on East Tennessee on my right and the line of the Cumberland and Tennessee to the west.
If you can arm these men, or any other portion of the quota called out and assembled, and will designate the numbers and the troops, and the time at which efficient arms can be put into their hands, I will, if the time be not too far distant, keep all such in service, and so try to secure my command from danger, and perhaps strike a heavy blow on the advancing enemy. A prompt reply is urgently requested.
I am, sir, most respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. S. JOHNSTON, General, C. S. Army.
HEADQUARTERS WESTERN DEPARTMENT, Bowling Green, Ky., November 5, 1861.
HonorableJ. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of War:
I reported that I ordered all troops unarmed to be discharged but, desirous as I was to execute your orders promptly and fully, finding how very few armed men had presented themselves, I have, under pressing necessity and the hopes of speedy arming given to me by the governor of Tennessee, suspended the order for fifteen days.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. S. JOHNSTON, General, C. S. Army.
WYTHEVILLE, VA., November 5, 1861.
General A. SIDNEY JOHNSTON:
GENERAL: In obedience to orders from the Adjutant-General, I have proceeded thus far on my way to Prestonburg, Ky., "to assume command of the forces at that point and in its vicinity, for the protection and defense of that frontier," and I have the honor, in obedience to the same authority, to report by letter to you for such orders and instructions as you may have to communicate to me. I should have obeyed my orders literally by delaying this report until I arrived at Prestonburg, but the distance hence is so great (170 miles) and the means of
