as I know well the country below and above Palmetto. I know there is a very large supply of corn in those counties, and that the enemy will get in all, and were the enemy to attempt a raid in Fayetteville, we could strike them in flank or rear.

Respectfully,

F. C. ARMSTRONG,

Brigadier-General.

[38.]

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

Milledgeville, September 10, 1864.

To the MILITIA COMPOSING THE FIRST DIVISION:

I have this day withdrawn you from the command of General J. B. Hood. You entered the service for the defense of Atlanta. That city has for the time fallen into the hands of the enemy. The campaign against it is now at an end. Most of you entered the service with but little preparation, leaving important interests to suffer, expecting to return home in a few weeks. You have borne the fatigue and dangers of the campaign withmanly firmness and heroic valor, and have won for the Georgia militia a proud name in history. The fall of Atlanta leaves the State exposed to further invasion. The enemy will fortify tat place, accumulate supplies, andprepare for a winter campaign against Macon and other interior points, which, if taken, will leave many of your homes and loved obes within his lines, and expose the homes of ohers to the ravages of his raids. To prevent this it may soon again be necessary for you to lift your strong arms to repel his advance. In the meantime it is due to you that an opportunity be iven you to put your houses in order and provide as best ou can for the future wants of those dependent upon you. One of the important crops of the State now needs attention or a large quantity of sirup will be lost, which is of great value. It is also due you that you have an opportunity to return home and bring to the front with you any and all who are subject and have avoided or refused to take their just part on the dangers and hardships which you have endured. I therefore hereby order and direct that each and every officer and soldier in the division have a furlough of thirty days. I further order that all persons over the age of fifty years be detailed until further order to perform necessary patrol duty at home, and to arrest and send forward, when the division returns to the field, all who are subject who do not report. All details of persons under fifty years of age forat home are hereby revoked, and the men over fifty years of age are directed to take their placed and will remain at home as long as they faithfully discharge the duties above mentioned. If they neglect them they will be ordered back to the field. All details or furloughs to remain at home granted by any aide-de-camp or officer, except from these headquarters, are hereby declared void, and those who hold them are hereby required to report with the division at the end of thirty days. All furloughs granted at these headquarters to persons in Confederate employement, upon the ceertificate of the head of any of the Confederate departments in Georgia, are to remain in force until further orders, as well as all details of physicians and millers heretofore made, upon the application of the justices of the inferior courts of their respective counties.

As furlough could always be obtained with much less difficulty of every man would return at the time designated, and as it is very important that the division reassemble in its full strength at the time