I had organized 10,000 militia. The language used was, "nearly 10,000 armed men." At that time the two regiments of the State Line, who are regular troops for the war, numbered nearly 1,500. They, too, were placed under the Confederate commander, and nearly 500 of them, while under his command, have been disabled or lost upon the battle-field. But if I had made the statement, as you incorrectly charge, it would have been true. The tri-monthly report forwarded by Major General G. W. Smith, who commands the division of State militia, to General Hood, dated 10th of September, 1864, bug a few days after the fall of Atlanta, showed upon the muster-rolls of his division 9,170 men. This report did not include the regiment of Fulton County militia, which had been detached for local service in the city, under command of Brigadier General M. J. Wright, of the Confederate Army, nor the regiment of Troup County militia, which was stationed by the commanding general at West point, under Brigadier-General Tyler, of the Confederate Army. Nor did it include the two regiments of the State Line which had been ordered into other divisions of the Army of Tennessee. Nor did it include the Battalion of Cadets of the Georgia Militiary Institute, who did gallant service in the trenches of Atlanta. Nor did it embrace the names of the gallant dead of this division, who never turned their backs to the enemy, but fell upon the battle-field or died in the hospital. These had rendered the last service in the power of the patriot to their country before the President saw the necessity which induced him to call for thme, and as they slept at the date of his call in the soldier's grave they were, unfortunately, unable to respond. But if you say that the whole 10,000 were not in the trenches with muskets in their hands, I reply that, while many were sick and some absent without leave, a larger proportion of the number upon the muster-rolls were there than of probably any other division in General Hood's army; and, judging from the late speech of the President in Macon, a much larger number than the usual average in the armies of the Confederacy.

As I understand your letter you deny that it was the purpose of the President to disband or disorganize the militia, and say he intended to take the organization, with all its offivers, and maintain it. I do not pretend to quote your language, but state what I understand to be the substance. Unfortunately, your own record onctradicts you. In the requisition made by you occurs this sentence: "Those within the limits of General Hood's department will report to him; those outside, to the commandant of the Department of South Carolina and Georgia." The line between these department cuts in two General Smith's division, and probably three of the four brigades of which it is composed, and the requisition orders that part of this division and those brigades on one side of it to report to General Hood, then at Atlanta, and that part on the other side to the commandant whose headquarters were at Charleston. But this was not all: It ammounted to an order in advance, if I responded to the call, to a large proportion of the militia then under arms to leave Atlanta in the very crisis of her fate, and return home and report to General Jones, whose headquarters were at Charleston. This would not only have permanently divided and disbanded the militia organization as it existed under the laws of the State, but would have aided the President in carrying out his policy, already referred to, of withdrawing the militia from Atlanta before its fall and compelling armed men then aiding in its defense to leave and report to a commandant upon the coast, where there was no attack anticipated from