Congress, from all service in the Confederate armies, and of whom it is expressly declared by an act of the Legislature of Georgia that they shall not be "liable to any draft or other compulsory process to fill any requisition for troops upon the Governor of the State by the President of the Confederate States." That was a call which the President could legally make and which the Governors had lawful authority to fill. This is a call which the President had no lawful right to make, and which the Governor could not fill without violating a positive statute of his State. That was a call for active militia who were not in service, but were at home attending to their ordinary pursuits. This is a call for reserve militia, who, at the time it was made were, and for months past had been, in actual service, most of the time in the trenches around Atlanta, under the constant fire of the guns of the enemy. In that case the Governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut refused to place the militia of those States under the command of a Federal general. In this case the militia had already been placed by the Governor of Georgia under the command of a Confederate general, where they were on the very day the call was made, and had been for some months previous.

In that case the Governors of those States adjudged that no emergency existed to justify the call for the militia, after the President had decided that it did, and they refused to order them into the field. In this case the Governor of Georgia admitted that the emergency did exist, and had ordered them in months before the President saw the emergency and called for the services of the militia. In that case the President was making an honest effort to get the militia of Massachusetts and Connecticut into service to aid in repelling any assaults that might be made by the enemy. In this case the President, after the reserve militia of Georgia had been called out by the Governor and put into active service, was using his official influence, as shown by Generrs 63 and 67, issued by his Adjutant-General, to get the militia of Georgia out of service, where they were confronting the enemy and shedding their blood in the defense of their State. When they were in thge trenches under the fire of the enemy the President held out, as a reward for their delinquency in case of their desertion from the State militia and return home, a guaranty of the privilege of remaining there in local companies, to be called out only in emergencies, to defend their own counties and vicinage. I append to this letter paragraph 1, General Orders, Numbers 63, and a paragraph of General Orders, Numbers 67,* by reference to which it will be seen that all detailed men were required, and all exempts from Confederate service invited, to enroll themselves in local companies at home, with promise that they should be called out only in imergencies to defend the counties of their residence and contiguous counties.

The present militia of Georgia are composed of exempts from Confederate service and such detailed men as are not in the military service of the Confederate States. The militia of the State then at the front was composed of men of these classes only. the order was addressed to all men of both classes. The President denied the right of the Governor of Georgia to call out the detailed men for service, and would, if consistent, stand ready to protect them in case they would desert the militia service and return home and join his local companies. Thus the strong temptation of remaining at home was held out by the President to these men if they would ingloriously abandon Atlanta, when belaugered by the enemy, and, after desertion from the militia,

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*Extracts here ommitted. For full text of orders see Series IV.

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