Spirit of Jefferson. [volume] (Charles Town, Va. [W. Va.]) 1844-1948, 1866-01-02

rival near lIldJ pIdCC3 Oh aCSOOnI Vi the OGIe1G
and death of Gen. VIM. Z. Jones at Pied
mont in the Shenandoah Valley, and EwelPs
corps, with two battalons of artillery, were
detached under my command, On the morning
CT the 18th Of June, &c meet Hunter. This
counterbalanced all reiptGrcements. The
foregoing statement, which fully covers Gen.
lees strength, shows the disparity of forces
between the two armies in the beginning. and
it was never lessened after they reached the
vicinity of Richmond and PETERSBURG. but
was greatly inc reascd. The curious NAV
speculate as to what would have been the re-
suit if the resources in men and munitions of
war of the two commanders had been re-
versed. or If Lees strength had approxima
ted Grants. Occupying Il neutral position,
as between the two Federal commanders
Grant and Butler, and certainly having no
reason to admire the latter, | cannot bur he
amused at the effort of Grant, by The use of
a few flash phrases, to make Butler the scane-
goat Of all his failures
The disparity between the forces Of Sheri-
dan and myself in the Valley campaign was
even greater than that between Lee and
Grant My force, when | arrived in front
OF Washington on the llth of July. 1864
WAS eight thousand mnSkets. three small bat
talIons of artillery with about t;,rrv field
pieces, of which the largest were twelve
FOUNDER Nap"Ieons, and about two the usand
badly mounted aud equipped cavalry. of
which large portion had been detached to
cur the railroads leading from Baltimore north
Zen. Grant says that two divisions of the
sixth corps and tho advance Of the nineteenth
corps arrived at Washington before | did,
an" VT. Stanton says was met there by the
sixth corps, u part OF the nineteenth CORPS
under Gen. Emory, and IL lurt of the eighth
N1NrB l.,
/ then marched over 800 miles. marching. at
least twenty miles each day, except the day
"i the fight at Monucacv. when il marched
fourteen miles, aud fought and defeated Gen.
Wallace
At the battle Of Winchester, or Opeouon,
MS 1t is called hy Gencral Grant, nv effective
strength was ABOUT eight thousand five hum
drcd (S,JJU) mu>kc;>, aud three battuliUns OF
artillery and less than three Thousand q. 900
cavalry. Sherldan'S infantry consisted of the
SiXth, Nineteenth and Cooks Cur,s, com
posed OF one division of the Ei-hth corps. and
what was called the Amy of West ir.inia"
Some idea may be FORMED Of the strength of
the Sixth Corps when it is rccollected that
the army Of the Potomac was composed of
three corps on til. st of May previous. to
Wit: the Second Fitth and Sixth, and that
Its elective strength then WAS. accord.n" TO
Hr. St"mt"ms statement, l:4p.;;SG The
same statement shows that the available
strength OF the forces in the = Department of
" est irnnia,' on the 1t of May was 30
iSz anu most Ut the troops in this depart
nent were concentrated in the Valley. Doe
uincnts subsequently captured showed the
strength OF thc Nineteenth Corps to have
been at the battle Of Winchester. not I.-s
than l2,VJU effective men. Official reports
captured at Cedar Greek showed that
Sheridan cavalry on the 18th of September.
two days before the fight, numbered lUIO0
present Tor duty. Ills artillery was vastly
superior to mine i'll number OF men and nuns
The Sixth Corps alone must have exceeded
my entire strength unless it had met with
such tremendous losses as to REFUGE IFS
strength thrre>tnWrths. From all the inf,r
nation received and from documents can
turcd AT cedar Greek. | am satisfied that Sher-
ldan elective Infantry strength ut Winchcs.
ter could not have been less than 81. 900
nm-kct., and it probably more The odds
against ne, therefore, were fully four to one
aud probably more. Ills very great surer,
GRITTY IN cavalry was very disudvantageotrs to
ne, as the country was very open and admi-
r"bly adapted to cavalry operations. and our
cavalry being armed mostly with Enfield rifles
out pistols or sabrcs could not fiyht his
whose equipments and arms were cUr,nIr,e
Enforced By one division of infantry CKer
shaw's) numbering twcnty-scvcn hundred
(2,'uU) musActS, one small battalion vi artil-
lcry and about six hundred 5000 cavalry.
which about nh'ie up my losses at Winche.-
ter and Fishers Hill. ! went int" ,hi, flint
with eight Thousand five hundred mu, k.t>,
about forty pieces of artillery and ah ~;
twelve hundred I,:uU) cavalry, Il. the rest of
my cavalry. which was guarding the Luray
alley, did hot Get up in time. though ordered
t" move N the same time moved to the at
tack. ShcrI'iamS infantry mad been recruit
ed fully ny 10 It's strength at Winchester and
his cavalry numbered >.1UU. as shown by the
official reports captured The main cause
why the rpu. of his army in the morning, va,
not complete was the fact that Inv caya ~
could not compete with his, and the latter
therefore, remained intact. lie clnirnc,I all
his own guns that had been captured in the
morning and afterwards rccapiurcd as so
many guns captured from me whereas | lost
only t"cnty~ihIce guns, and the loss of these
and tie wagons which were taken was mainly
owing TO the fact that Il bridge. ON the mar
row part Of the read between Cedar C,c,k
and Fishers Hill, broke down. and the ouns
and wagons, which latter were not numerous
could not be brought oft Pursuit WIS NOT
made to Mount 'Jack>on. stated bv both
"raht ana Stanton. but my troops were halt>
cd for the night at Fishers Hill, three nj .es
from Cedar Creek, and next Jav rnured back :,
New Market, six miles from Mount Jackson.
without any pursuit at all. So far from its
being true, us stated hy Mr.. Stanton. that To
force appeared in the Valley, the fact is that
l rc"rgnnzcd my forces at New Market. and
on the luth of November moved down the
Valley again and confronted Sheridan - the
I'm and 18th in 'front.' Of his entertainments.
between Newtown and Youngstown, and then
refined back to New Market because provi
Sl"nS aud forage could not be obtained in he
lower alley. Tie expeditions Ly Which the