[372] force early in the morning of the 31st, and drive the enemy at all hazards into the river in their rear. In the event of success, Lee and his command were to be withdrawn that night back to Rough-and-Ready; Stewart's corps, together with Major-General G. W. Smith's state troops, were to form in line of battle on Lee's right near Eastpoint, and the whole force move forward the following morning, attack the enemy in flank and drive him down Flint river and the West Point railroad. In the meantime the cavalry was to hold in check the corps of the enemy stationed at the railroad bridge across the Chattahoochee near the mouth of Peach-tree creek, whilst Hardee advanced from his position near Jonesboroa or directly on Lee's left.
When the text is compared with the date, tenor and effect of the dispatches quoted above, and it is remembered that they were written and sent before the result at Jonesboroa was known, the context furnishes its own commentary.
Now, according to the text, the arrival of Howard's army at Jonesboroa on the 30th of August was the signal for general battle. Sherman's position was known, and his purposes and movements anticipated, and thereupon a concerted offensive movement of the entire army was begun, whereby Sherman was to be struck in flank and driven down Flint river and the West Point railroad, while the cavalry (which, by the way, except a small body with Hardee at Jonesboroa and another near Rough-and-Ready, was absent on a raid in North Georgia and Tennessee) was to hold in check the army corps of the enemy stationed at the railroad bridge over the Chattahoochee.
Then, according to the dispatches, one written at 6 P. M. August 31st, and the duplicate later, Hardee was to protect Macon and communications in rear, and Lee's corps and Reynolds' brigade, and all troops which could be spared from Hardee's corps, were to be withdrawn to Atlanta to defend that place from an apprehended attack by Sherman's army; which army, with Howard's three corps already at Jonesboroa on the 30th, had, on the morning of the 31st, struck the railroad at Rough-and-Ready, and at two points between there and Jonesboroa, with orders “to turn straight for Jonesboroa,” and was now concentrated on Hardee in the vicinity of Jonesboroa.
In obedience to these orders, Lee's corps was withdrawn and sent to Atlanta; and Hardee, with three divisions and a small body of cavalry, and encumbered by the ordnance and subsistence trains of the entire army, was left to confront Sherman's army. Tne new
