HEADQUARTERS HARDEE'S CORPS,
Tullahoma, Tenn., April 16, 1863.

General BRAXTON BRAGG:

GENERAL: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 13th instant, containing extracts from official communications made by Lieutenant-General Polk to you in regard to the operations in Kentucky in October last. You refer to an order issued by you on October 2, directing Lieutenant-General Polk to move his forces to Frankfort and strike the enemy on his flank and rear, which order you say was disobeyed by the general after a council of war and at which I was present. You also refer to the official report of Lieutenant-General Polk of the battle of Perryville, and state that after another meeting of general officers he disobeyed your orders of October 7, copy of which you inclose. After referring to these topics you censure the disclosure of these facts, which you assert are in a manner compromising to me [and begged me], if consistent with my sense of duty, to inform you to what extent I sustained the general in his acknowledged disobedience.

In answer I have the honor to say that while I do not desire to shrink from any responsibility incurred by me in the part I took in the councils of war called by Lieutenant-General Polk, I do not consider it proper, in answer to a communication such as you have addressed, to enter into details of what occurred on the occasions referred to.

I am, general, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

W. J. HARDEE,

Lieutenant-General.

HDQRS. POLK'S CORPS, ARMY OF TENNESSEE,
April 17, 1863.

Lieutenant-General HARDEE, C. S. Army:

DEAR GENERAL: I am in receipt of the letter addressed you on the subject of the alleged disobedience of orders, and thank you for the prompt indication of what was brewing. I am compelled to say it does not at all surprise me; so that when I said to you I felt it to be quite as necessary to watch Tullahoma as Murfreesborough you will see I was not mistaken in my estimate of the necessities of my position or of the character of others. As to the specific acts for which the arrest and trial are to be had (for I am satisfied that an arrest and trial are deliberately determined upon), I have to say I feel quite easy. There was certainly no disobedience of orders in either case. In that of Bardstown I was ordered to take all my available force and move, &c. As to what portion of my force was in that condition the general did not undertake to judge himself nor did he require me to be guided by the judgment of others. By the terms of the order I was to be the judge myself. I did judge, and, in view of the fact that I knew I had the largest part of Buell's army in my immediate front on the Elizabethtown, Shepherdsville, Mount Washington, and Taylorsville roads, and that if I moved from my position at Bardstown to strike the column moving upon Shelbyville in flank and rear I should not only cease to hold four columns in check but would expose my own flank to be assailed by them all while I was moving to assault one, I thought it quite plain I had no troops at my command which were available for the execution of such an order. That was the precise point submitted by me to the council of officers I summoned for consultation, to wit: Whether I had any force which in the circumstances before me might be regarded as available for the purpose indicated. I thought not, and every officer in