St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1867-07-19
The Rcbet -frn,ies.

hs III
\ correspondent OF the New York
Tribune. who has obtained access 10 the
rebel archives. furnishes some interesting
statistics rc>peciin. the number OF >ol-
dicr> pat in the field 10y the rebels, and
the strength OF their armies at various
periods durin. the war From the liz
ures gwen it appears that tire army OF
northern ;t!rginil, when Lee took COM
nand in june. l>.'3. numbered lUn. Ouu
lnen present Tor Iuty. In ,Iuly this num-
Der Was reduced 10 "9..5.J9 ly tie Seven
,lay<' battle with Mcclellan beio.e Rlrll-
moni. tx Au.u>; these lu>->> hal i-,,li
- iar maic GOOD that I.,e hal 1000
men tit ior active duiv. with whom lac
h..am 4 movement against Washington.
resulting in tie defeat OF Pope anI The
;uriiim. le,ci, 90, lie rebel forces al Aniie-
tam by McClllan During ih.> CAIN
paign Lec'> force MAS reduced 10 -, miU
ly los OF about ia.0no men, OF whom
/; l. SAID g'Iic hall wcrc >tra.cle-s who
never r,.jo;ne,l their rank In June,
leG;;. Lees army once mnre. and Tor Tn
Ia; time. counted lOn.0nu men liz Tor
active du1v- Milh t:l.- lar-a ior,e h,
;,-ain attempted an INVASION ui the north,
hul met with a fatal 'l,-i,a; II Getty
bur-, ami IN onc Short month To-; "a
nno men. which reduced hi force 10 H.
$50. The absolute los in Ills cam
pai-n. III killed. wounded and prisoners.
MAS tuliv in.OOn. almost hall ms arny.
Never alter iii the army Of northern
Nir-in.;,. which Tor four wear w:.> lie
lulw.t-h AMI pride II .he rei'el>, number
-n.uOn eiio-;i,c men The latest return
shows that IA February, l>'.5. there
,v,7e 5n,"9i l,r,--tas ia- ll,y. ami when
i ii,.ally rcirt..,ol from R.cinaonl i !
louh,iu, !; ile entire force exceeded ~
900 men The ;,haNe iicur,S represent
the number III ior a,-:ire service, Tuere
wcrc p-c--ui. al :.lon-. from sey,n 10
twenty-five thousand who MAJ nel on
duly.
The department OF Richmond, which
MIS- organized in Ike summer OF l>''3.
while Les army WAS AWAY ii.htiil-
Pope, Lad IN September ui thai Year -
tor troops, b,it thu number MAS alter
warl greatly reduced. ami after Deccn-
hcr, l>G:'. aiiatar- 10 liase consisted OF
the i"cai militia composed mainly ot
government employees and cNcmpI> from
the regular service. |; i evident that
Richmond might 1.l>iiy llaye been taken
by small force. several times. had our
commanders l'oyn aware OF the condition
Ct thing.
Thus. in June. lN'';;;. when Lee be-
Gan hi> march 10 Pennsylvania. de-
m"n>ir.liion MAS actually made ly a
force of some lJ.oon from Yorktown: il
reached The Chickahominv. hui finding
The bridges guarded. IL returned without
making any attempt al gong further.
NJ tins time. there Were but 6,nn men
there present Tor duty. and but a0ua.
couniin. all, present and absent. Again
in February. 1861. when kilpairich
made the IaiL in which Dahl-ren MAS
killed. having actually penetrated the
lines of foriifcation, there were but 900
of these militia In Richmond. besides
about 1000 under Win,ler. forming whar
was called the Department Il llenrico.'
who formed the guard for the prison,rs.
Had Fitzpatrick kept his cavalry force
tcgethcr. lie might have rode into ihe
city AND liberated the prisoners. Or
had hi> cavalry RAID been supported by
lew thousand infantry. Richmond
might have been taken and held -
In july. lS62. the rebel armies. es>l
and we>t. numbered altogether 2l7.uGO
effective men in March 1863. PSI .nun .
in April. 1864, 3n9. 600 in November.
1861. l16.UoO The rebel armies un-
duubtclly reached their highest point.
both IN numbers and efficiency. IN the
early summer of 1865, when the muyc-
ment into Pennsylvania WAS colnnenood.
AT the close OF March. before all prei,a-
raiions had l.ecn made. the returns show
a nominal force OF iSl,U00 of whom
3ll, goo, we're present, and for duty
Probably about 2o.o00 were added dur
In. the next SIX weeks IL The army OF
the east; :" that we NAV safely say that
at the middle vi june there We're a little
more than .5O0,1o0 on the muster rolls,
of whom Sou, 900 were present Tor duiy.
In the first week of July, that wear, they
sustained losses amounting 10 iull Hoo
! eco men. In The spring q 1861, when
Grant opened his campaign, l-ce had
only little more than 10000. From
this time the returns show that leseriiun
was exceedingly prevalent in all the rebel
armies In August, cut vi 4 nominal
force of 500. o0o, there were not zoo
0e0 present for duty in all the armies
Probably in all 600,0o0 different men
were in the rebel ranks during the war.
OF whom il is not likely more than one
half are alive At this day.
If the above figures are correct the