NEAR LOVEJOY'S STATION,

September 3, 1864.

The enemy approached my position cautiously from Jonesborough yesterday, and about sunset attacked a portion of Cleburne's line. The attack was easily repulsed and with considerable loss to the enemy.

W. J. HARDEE,

Lieutenant-General.

His Excellency JEFFERSON DAVIS,

Richmond, Va.

HEADQUARTERS,
Camp near Smithfield, N. C., April 5, 1865.

Honorable JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE,

Secretary of War, Richmond:

GENERAL: I have just concluded and will to-day forward to General Cooper a report of the operations of my corps about Atlanta, and intended merely as an answer to the misrepresentations contained in General Hood's report respecting myself. You will oblige me by authorizing its publication, which I consider due alike to the truth of history and to my own reputation.

With high respect, your obedient servant,

W. J. HARDEE,

Lieutenant-General.

HEADQUARTERS HARDEE'S CORPS,
Camp near Smithfield, N. C., April 5, 1865.

GENERAL: The want of subordinate reports has hitherto prevented me from making an official report of the operations of my corps, of the Army of Tennessee, from the opening of the campaign at Dalton to the time of my transfer from that army on the 28th of September, 1864. Many of the general officers in that corps were killed, wounded, or captured in the recent Tennessee campaign without having made up their reports, and this obstacle, therefore, still exists; but the publication of General Hood's official report makes it a duty to place at once upon record a correction of the misrepresentations which he has made in that report with respect to myself and the corps which I commanded. It is well known that I felt unwilling to serve under General Hood upon his succession to the command of the Army of Tennessee, because I believed him, though a tried and gallant officer, to be unequal in both experience and natural ability to so important a command, and soon afterward, with the knowledge and approval of General Hood, I applied to His Excellency the President to be relieved from duty with that army. The President replied that it was my duty to remain where I was. I accepted the decision and gave to the commanding general an honest and cordial support. That in the operations about Atlanta I failed to accomplish all that General Hood thinks might have been accomplished, is a matter of regret. That I committed errors is very possible, but that I failed in any instance to carry out in good faith his orders I utterly deny; nor during our official connection did General Hood ever evince a belief that I had in any respect failed in the execution of such parts of his military plans as were intrusted to me.