it was essential to look to the effect here also. The enemy having made a move down the railroad from here this morning to meet and capture or disperse them. A cavalry force we had stationed there behaved very badly, as usual, or the enemy never could have advanced as far as they did. General Van Dorn will leave immediately for Jackson. His resources will be very limited, the forces in that department having dwindled down to almost nothing, and I shall accordingly authorize him to use the force sent to Oxford and Holly Springs, some 8,000 or 9,000 good troops.

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

BRAXTON BRAGG,

General, C. S. Army, Commanding.

[17.]

CHATTANOOGA, March 2, 1863.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

President:

Mr. PRESIDENT: I have just had the honor to receive your letter of the 19th ultimo. I find that it would be difficult to find a successor to General Bragg equal to him in all respects, especially now, when the season of active operations is so near that the successor might not be allowed time to learn well the theater of operations before the enemy's attack, and therefore regret very much that you think that the impaired confidence of the superior officers in hit fitness to command makes his removal necessary. I cannot think that troops who seem so full of spirit, and who, their superior officers say, are full of confidence, can doubt much the capacity of their general. Besides a strong belief of his capacity, the injustice he endures from the country induces me to wish that you may find it expedient not to remove General Bragg. Should you do so, however, he will confirm the opinion you express of his disinterested patriotism. I apprehend from some passages of your letter that I may not have fully understood my position here. I thought that it was not intended that I should at any time assume immediate command of either of the three departments, and having so expressed myself in writing to you early in January, without being corrected, I was thus confirmed in my belief. It seems to me that the exercise of such a power, except in rare cases, would operate badly, unless the officer exercising it should be greatly superior to those commanding the departments. Those officers having studdied and kept up with all the military circumstances would be more competent to command at an important juncture than one just arrived. They could not be expected to serve with full zeal and interest if liable to be deprived by my arrival at the last moment of the fruits of long labor. The injustice to the department commanders which might be thus inflicted was suggested to me by your obill creating the office of general-in-chief. It emproved that officer to take command of any of our armies whenever he thought proper. This you thought would be unjust to the officer so superseded. The distance between these armies is so great, and each so near the enemy, that one cannot often learn where the need is greatest until it is past. I could not have reached Murfreesborough in time for the battle, if I had attempted to do so after the

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* See VOL. XXIII, Part II, p. 640.

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