The weekly standard. (Port Gibson, Miss.) 1865-1867, 1866-01-20

I ~ -
on the nth Of September, two days
before the fight, numbered l0. 100 pres
ent for duty, His artillery was vastly
superior to mine in number of menand
guns. The 4th Corps alone must have
exceeded my entire strength, unless it
had met with such tremendous losses
as to reduce its strength at least three
fourths. From all the information re-
eeiyeds And from documents captured
at Cedar Greek, am satisfied that
Sheridan's effective infantry at Win
leicester conldnotihave been less than
thirty-fye thousand muskets,a and it
was probably more. The odds against
me, therefore, were fully four to one,
and probably more. His very great
superiority in cavalry was very disad-
vantageous to me, as the country was
very open and admirably adapted to
cavalry operations, and my cavalry, be-
ing mostly armed with Enfield rifles,
without pistols or sabres, could not
fight his, whose equipment and arms
were complete At the fight at Cedar
Creek had been reinforcedsby one di-
vision of infantry (Kershaw's) number
ing twenty-seyen hundred (27OOl mus
kets, one small battalion of artillery
and about six hundred (6O0) cavalry,
which aboutrmade up my loss at Win
chester and Fishers Hill. I went IN
to this fight with about eight thous-
and FIVE hundred (85OO) muskets, about
forty pieces Of artillery, and about
twelve hundred (120O) cavalry, as the
rest of my cavalry. which was guarding
the Luray Valley, did not get up in
time, though ordered to move faf the
same time moved to the attack
Sheridan's infantry had been recruited
fully up to its strength at Winchester,
and his cavalry numbered $500, as
shown by the official reports captured.
The main causewhy sthei route of his
army in the morning was not COM
plete was the fact that my cavalryeouh
not complete with his, and the latter,
therefore, renamed intact. He claimed
all his own guns that had been cap
tured in the morning, and afterwards
recaptured, as SO many guns captured
from me, whereas, I lost only % guns,
and the loss of these and the wagons
which were taken was mainly owing to
the fact THAT q bridge, on d narrow
part of road between Cedar Creek
and Fishers Hill, broke down, and the
guns and wagons, which latter were not
..nt1nieFous, could not be- brought of.
Pursuit was not made to Mount Jack
son, as stated by both Grant and Stan
ton, but my troops were halted for the
night at Fishers Hill, three miles from
Cedar Greek, and next day moved back
to New Market six miles from Mount
Jackson, without any pursuit at all
so far from its being trueyis stated by
Mr.. Stanton that no force appeared in
the Valley after this, the fact is that |
reorganized my force at New Market,
andon the 10th of November moved
down the Valley again and confronted
Sheridan on the 18th and 18th in front
Of his entrenchments between Newton
and Kearnstown, and then retired
back to New Marke because provis-I
ions and forage could not be obtained
in the lower Valley. The expeditions
by which the posts of New Greek and
Beverly were subsequently, captured,
were sent out from my force il, the VAL
Hey. The strong force which Gen.
Grant says was entrenehed under me
at to WaynesboroS 4 when Sheridan adj
svaneed up the Valley in the latter part
of February, 1965. with two divisions
|
of cavalry of 5000 each, 10000 in ALI
consisted Of about 1000 infantry and a
few pieces. Of artiH Hery, NEST, of my. in
fantry having been returned to- Genl
Lee to meet corresponding sdetach-
En1ehts fromSSheridan to Grant, and all
of my artillery and most of my cavalry.
having been sent off on account of the
impossibiIity Of foraging the horses in
the Valley. eDbyions reasons ofpqlicy
prevented any publication Of these
facts during the war ard il will now
be seen that / was leading a forlorn
hope all the time; and the public can
appreciate the character of the Veto
ries won by Sheridan over me:
The statements I bavs made are
from facts coming within my own
knowledge, and they are made to show
the disparity between the Confederate
armies and those Sftlie U1itsd States.
These statements will serve to give
bsome idea of the sdisparities existing in
other lines. Inow ask which has re-