Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1863-06-03

Of sermons SO cents each, ponv1l-'59
/ al Prom the Philadelphia North American.
! THE NUMBERS OF THE REBELS.
An Article that mas Solid Encourage
aE.otg ment In 1t.
So mach has been said, at various times,
of the great strength of the rebel army,
with the evident purpose Of exsggerating
its numbers and discouragipg the friends
of the Union, that in addition to what we
haVeialready urged upon the subject, as the
result of ficalculation and IA comparison of
data, we take occasion to cite case ia
point from Europe; to render manifest the
prcposterous character Of the claims here
tofore made respecting this rebel force.-
The empire of Russia contains a total pop
utation of 70,000,000 souls. 1t covers an
immense expanse of territory, has many
exposed points to protect, the behests of
despotic Government TO enforce, and many
discordant nationalities to repress and
keep in suhjection. Yet a late English
lcontains thelsubjoineds paragraph
''THE RUSSIAN ARMY.-The Zygodn,k
states, on the authority of official dOcu-
ments, that the active Russian army now
comprises, after the reductions which have
been made, 335, 900 infantry, 81 900 cav
airy, $4,000, of the reserve, so, ,0OO. O.artille-
rymen, With 1000 cannou-mak ktnga total
of $4,000 men ouspaper. The real effec-
tive force, however, is considerably less,
and does not exceed 10000 men," ,,,a
The Iggodnk we presume to be a Rus
sian paper. Atauy rate, however, the in
formation seems to be official. With this
force of 100000 the Russian Government
has to fight against the great insurrection
in Poland and the unceasing hostility of
ha ~ IL
inSeparable from such despotisIn as that
of Russian Before the breaking out of
the Crimean war, the army of that empire
was gradually raised uutilsit figured on pa
per 1000, 600 men, but it. is known that il
never actually reached 800, 600, and twas
with that strength that Russia went into a
contest with England, France, Turkey and
Sardinia. Nor.cansit be said that thearmy
was thus limited through any spirit of econ
onIy on the part of the government, for the
conscriptiou was general aud severe, aud
the Russian War Department resorted to
the most extraordinary measures to in
crease its army bringing in the Tartar
bordes from the Asiatic steppes, clad in
their long robes and high hats.
1t is possible for population like that
of our reyolted States, breaking out sud.
denly into a fierce war, to muster very
test but with campaigns so fatal to life,
SO destructive of health, and so reckless of
limbs as ours, have been, SO active in con.
flicts and SO exhausting,it it is scarcely con-
ceiyabie that, the southern armies should
be kept up to any higher strength than
100000 at the present time, aud even that
forco would require the stripping OF the
soHth Of its entire able bodied male popu-
lation. The population from which the
southern rebel army, is drawn is about
100000, and taking the army In the
Crimean war period nj 100000 men, we
have the following comparison .s.55
Country. Pop Army Ratio.
Russia, 7O,oO0,O00 800. 600 L in s7.5
RebelStates, 5000, 900 100000 in526.3
Thus even at the outset Of the rebellion
supposing the force in,the field against us
to have been no more than what we now
estimate it to be, the PROPORTION to the ac-
tuHl population s astonishing. zItfexceeds
in relative numbers anything known to
Europe, with her great military Powers,
during period of half century. But
when we call to mind the numbers of the
slain, the manned, The sick, disabled, and
those lost from disease, the proportion is
without precedent, and We thus reach the
conclusion that the present army is the, ,nl. H
evading this conclusion, haless we believe
that the rebel armies have always been ex-
aggerated, and that they never reached.
100000 men at any time. OF the eight
millions of population we have set down to
the creditstOh the revolt, not more than
4,500, 900 are free, the rest being slsves.-|
Thus far the armies have been raised from
this free population, to which the force of
300, 600 men stands 10 the ratio of in l 8.
Supposi1g 300, 900 to h,tve Seen prsyious-
" disposed of by battle, disease and tie
calamities of'War, thus making altogether
a total draft of 600, 900, that would be in
the ratio of in. u .5S leaving scarcely more
than small fraction of free males remain
ing. u ~ .s5sl lsiIsaH
lsIu some of the rebel States there are no
free malesleft. This is the case in Virginia,
where for miles the country may be seen
without white man at any house other
than some disabled or intirm person
Grlerson's raid found It to be true of Mis-
sissippi, and the official statistics ofsTexas
prove the fact as regards shat State. II
would, indeed, seem as lhongh the rebel
conspiIators had deliberately contrived
this war 1.-The express purpose of ridding
the south of its poor white population, or
rather the surplus white population, which
the national census has eIer7 decade shown
TO be Increasing so rapidly as 70 bid fair
to become the predominant interest sof. the
south, to the exclusion of slavery. Some
of the rebel editors, who evidently were
not in the secret, have frequently written
bitterly of the "extermination' of the
south, clearly Indicating that the frightfni
mortality of the war was having the effect
of Kidding the south of it's surplus white
male poPnlation. The females, .childsea
and infiFm, all the helpless ones, however.
remain, and form q greater incubns on, the
south. than. ever, as they will. in future be
dependent upon the community where they
may reside for q Subsistence. "a = a.
Having accomplished this, it would now