[1] Gen. Adams says: "Computations based on the census returns tend to
show that at the very lowest estimate the increase of time of military
service would represent an increase of at least 30 per cent. in
effectives." Id. p. 284.
[2] Our critic has made an error here: 12 per cent, of 1,000,000, i.e.,
120,000, so that his aggregate should be 1,420,000.
[3] See Merivale's History of the Romans, III, 416, and IV, 298 and 343,
and V. 386.
[4] In the first edition of Col. Henderson's work, cited above, he
actually stated that the element of foreigners in the Southern armies
was almost as large as in the Northern armies!
[5] Gen. Marcus J. Wright puts this number at only 65,387. But cf.
Mansfield's Life of Grant, p. 338.
[6] See a valuable discussion of our subject in a pamphlet entitled
"Acts of the Republican Party," by Cazenove G. Lee, who wrote under the
_nom de plume_ of "C. Gardner," Winchester, Va., 1906, pp. 59-69.
[7] I acted as adjutant of the Third Brigade A. N. Va., in the
Gettysburg campaign. Even then, in the third year of the war, and in
that best equipped army, the returns showed only 1480 muskets to 1941
men in the brigade. One-fourth of the command was without arms.
[8] "The Government, at the opening of 1864, estimated that the
Conscription would place four hundred thousand men in the field." Lee
did not share this belief. By the end of the year it was, in his
opinion, "diminishing, rather than increasing, the strength of his
army."--Letter of Dec. 31, 1864. See "R. E. Lee, Man and Soldier," p.
591, by Thos. Nelson Page.
[9] Thus, to quote that able and expert authority Gen. Marcus J. Wright:
Battles around Richmond (1862), Lee, 80,835; McClellan, 115,249. At
Antietam, Confederates, 35,255; Federals, 87,164. At Fredericksburg,
Confederates, 78,110; Federals, 110,000. At Chancellorsville,
Confederates, 57,212; Federals, 131,661. At Gettysburg, Confederates,
64,000; Federals, 95,000. At the Wilderness, Confederates, 63,981;
Federals, 141,160.
[10] A consideration of the portentous difference between the number of
men borne on the regimental rolls and the number actually available on
the battlefield, suggests that it may be in large degree accounted for
by the number of men detailed for service in the industrial army.
Thus in the army of Northern Virginia just before Fredericksburg, Nov.
20, 1862:
Aggregate present and absent 153,773
Aggregate present for duty 86,569
Soon after Gettysburg:
1863: Present and absent 109,915
Present for duty 50,184
Before Wilderness campaign:
1864: Present and absent 98,246
Present for duty 62,925
On reaching Petersburg, July 10, 1864:
Present and absent 135,805
Present for duty 68,844
As to exemptions it was customary to exempt farmers who engaged to raise
a certain amount of corn.
Again the practice was extensively pursued of granting furloughs for
recruiting service. Such men continued to be borne on the rolls of their
commands in the field.
[11] Aggregate available military population 792,000, of which 350,000
in the army January, 1862. Above figure is 2-1/2 per cent. of remainder,
viz. 442,000.
[12] Col. Livermore's method of computation, if applied to the true
available number 760,000, with additions and deductions noted above,
yields a very similar result, about 790,000. See his book, p. 23, but
note on p. 21 an error of calculation, where instead of 265,000 he
should give 246,872.
[13] The ten per cent. addition for extension of military age is too
high an estimate in this and the following tables, when we remember that
the conscript law lowering the age to seventeen and raising it to fifty
did not go into operation until February 17, 1864, by which time the
territory of the Confederacy was greatly contracted.
[14]
WAR DEPARTMENT,
WASHINGTON, May 18, 1912.
DEAR DR. MCKIM,
I think your estimate of 50,000 as representing the total number of
troops furnished by the Border States is about correct. It can never be
definitely ascertained.
Very truly yours,
MARCUS J. WRIGHT.
[15] I have not in this Monograph taken account of an argument sometimes
put forward, drawn from the alleged fact that the census of 1890 showed
that there were then living 432,020 Confederate and 980,724 United
States soldiers (or including sailors and marines 1,034,073). But the
Report on Population, 1890, Part II, p. clxxii, states that the figures
first quoted are approximate only, and "have not been subjected to
careful revision and comparison." No positive conclusion, therefore, can
be drawn from them. Their unreliability is shown by the fact that at
that very time the War Department estimated that there were then living
1,341,332 Federal soldiers.
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