Gen. D. H. Hill's defence.
Gen. D. H. Hill, who was relieved from his command in Gen. Bragg's army after the battle of Chickamauga, has published the following card in his defence.
A Card.--As several erroneous statements have been made in regard to my being relieved from duty with the Army of Tennessee, it cannot be improper to give the facts in the case. When the order relieving me was received, I called upon Gen. Bragg and asked the cause of it. He said that he had no cause of complaint against me up to the close of the battle on the 20th September; that no imputations had been, or could be made against my military character, and that he would promptly rebuke any one making such in his presence. I then asked what could be the reason for his action. He alleged as the cause an expression of opinion on my part. I inquired why I alone was held responsible for this utterance, when the other three corps commanders, (Longstreet; Buckner, and Cheatham,) had concurred in it. To this no satisfactory answer was given.
The insinuation made by some of the army correspondents of my being tardy in attacking on the morning of the 20th September, is unjust. The first intimation that I received that we were to be the assailants was an order to advance from the wing commander, (Gen. Polk,) received at 7:25 A. M. And the-first I heard of the contemplated attack at daylight was from Gen. Bragg himself, some half hour later. The four essential preparations for battle had not been made at 8 A. M., and, in fact, could not be made without the presence of the Commander-in-Chief, who then appeared on the field.
Lt. Gen. Longstreet has since told me that he was so far from being ready at daylight that he was not even ready when I began the attack. My impression is that my corps was engaged more than an hour before a trigger was drawn by any other troops. To the fierceness of the assault by this heroic corps the Yankees ascribe their massing on our right. If I am not greatly mistaken, we had gained the Chattanooga road, turned the Yankee works, and nearly reached the Kelly house, before the left wing came into action. The Yankees concentrated their forces rapidly to regain the key point of their position. Gens. Helm and Deshier were killed, and Gen. Adams was wounded and captured by the overwhelming masses thrown against my single corps. Gen. Adams told me that the Yankees, in conversation with him, ascribed the loss of the battle to their withdrawing too many troops from their right to meet this morning attack of my heroic men on their left. It would seem that the delay in attacking on our left led them to believe that our forces were massed on our right. All the Yankee accounts of the battle agree in this view of our plan of attack.
I heard no firing on our left until after the fine troops of Walker and Liddell had come to our support.
The charge of tardiness being disposed of it may be well to quote to the self-constituted critics the following extract from the letter of the Adjutant General, in refusal of my application for a Court of Inquiry: "Indeed, with an officer of your past service and approved gallantry, military delinquency is a presumption not to be indulged by any one, and certainly not in the absence of all charge or complaint sanctioned by the Department."
The following is the letter from the War Department to Gen. D. H. Hill, who demanded an inquiry into the cause of his relief from command in the Army of Tennessee. Further reference is unnecessary. The letter from Adjutant-General Cooper is sufficiently explanatory, and removes the imputations that have been indulged in by the public and the press:
Your letter of the 18th inst., requesting that a Court of Inquiry may be ordered to investigate your conduct while connected with the army in Tennessee, has been submitted to the Secretary of War. In reply, I am instructed to say that after careful consideration of the subject, there does not appear any adequate cause to justify an order for such Court. No charges have been preferred by your Commanding General or others against you, and no complaint even of your military conduct has been addressed to the Department. You have been simply relieved from duty at the request of the Commanding General. Your own military experience will readily satisfy you that the relief of an officer from his command constitutes no ground for a Court of Inquiry, and to allow it to be such could not fail to be prejudicial to the service. Other considerations than those of military delinquency, such as contrariety of views, want of harmony, or the like, may have well induced such application. Indeed, with an officer of your past service and approved gallantry, military delinquency is a presumption not to be indulged by any one, and certainly not in the absence of all charge or complaint sanctioned by the Department. No injustice, therefore, is done you, as certainly no reflection on your well-earned military reputation is intended by the Department, in declining, from general considerations for the interest of the service, to grant a Court of Inquiry on your application.
