[Indorsements.]

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT TENNESSEE, Dalton, Ga., February 2, 1864.

Respectfully forwarded.

W. W. MACKALL,
Chief of Staff.

ADJUTANT AND INSPECTOR GENERAL'S OFFICE, February 11, 1864.

Respectfully returned to General J. E. Johnston. Attention invited to Paragraph II of General Orders, Number 3, of January 9, 1863, from this office [following], which is important in the present instance.

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

GENERAL ORDERS, ADJT. AND INSP. General 'S OFFICE, Number 3. Richmond, January 9, 1863.

* * * * *

II. Not only are all papers and applications to be forwarded through the regular channels of communication, but the officers through whom they come, and who are generally supposed to be informed on the merits of the case presented, are required to express their opinions thereon, either in approval or disapproval. These opinions are frequently important to the Department, and the rule which prescribes them must not be overlooked.

By order:

S. COOPER,

Adjutant and Inspector General.

DALTON, February 19, 1864.

Respectfully returned, approved. I call attention to the fact that the action in this case was by one of my predecessors.

J. E. JOHNSTON,

General.

MARCH 2, 1864.

Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War. Is a court of inquiry to be granted in this case?

By order:

C. H. LEE,

Assistant Adjutant-General.

MARCH 4, 1864.

To adjutant and inspector general for remarks.

By order:

J. A. CAMPBELL,

Assistant Secretary of War.

A court of inquiry in this case would involve the examination of the surrender of the Arkansas Post, which would be a tedious and profitless undertaking at this time. There is, it is true, a censure directly passed by General Churchill's report on the conduct of Colonel Garland, but if this necessarily required the opinion of a court of inquiry every officer who might be so unfortunate as to meet the disapproval of his superior