time given him for this purpose the greater will be the disparity in numbers between your and his troops.

Having the honor to express to you the President's best wishes, I am, very respectfully,

G. W. C. LEE,

Colonel and Aide-de-Camp.

[31.]

RICHMOND, VA., November 17, 1863.

General D. H. HILL,

Richmond, Va.:

SIR: Yours of yesterday has just come to hand, and I hasten to reply that the conversation, before it closed, removed every impression which was personally disagreeable, and the whole matter was restored to its official character, so far as I am concerned. I am not sure whether your intended your letter to be an application for a court of inquiry, or whether you had made at a previous time such a request. The later is to be inferred from the language employed, but I am not informed as to the application or the "refusal," if one was made, and cannot judge of the grounds taken in either. You say you were relieved from the Army of Tennessee for expressing want of confidence in General Bragg. That reason was not given to me in the note through which General Bragg recommended your removal, and on which I authorized him to relieve you. The discrimination of which you complain is made to rest upon a reason which was not ofered to me, or acted on by me, and therefore the complaint is not warranted by the fact. Need I repeat that no charges were prferred against you, and again call your attention to that difference between your case and that of General Polk. If you have not fogotten my reply to you when you first referred to my note to General Polk, I am surprised that you should again adduce it in your list of grivances.

Very respectfully,

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

[30.]

RICHMOND, VA., November 19, 1863.

General B. BRAGG,

Near Chattanooga, Tenn.:

General Sam. Jones desires to be so far informed of your movement upon Knoxville as to enable him to co-operate as far as practicable.*

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

[31.]

RICHMOND, VA., November 20, 1863.

General B. BRAGG,

Near Chattanooga, Tenn.:

Your dispatch of this date received.+ General Johnston has strangely misapprehended the orders given by me when in Mississippi, of which General Hardee is fully informed. I telegraphed to him to afford you all the assistance he consistently can give. The change of

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*For reply, see Bragg to Davis, VOL. XXXI, Part III, p. 723.

+See Bragg to Davis, VOL. XXXI, Part II, p. 667.

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