New-York tribune., 1868-09-07

the strength of the armies opposing each other under
Grant and Lee
The simple fact is this, as all men ought now to
know. that early i'm Nav Lee had including his own
army on the Rapidan, and the troops at ana near
richmond and Petersburg about WOOO inen' vi 0ian n
had including the Army OF the James ABOUT io'ovo w.
il any one chooses to make the estimate Wuti, eh
hracng all the forces upon each side WITHIN tne
boundaries of Virginia and the CarOlinas the result
will be- essentially the same. " Present ioi u4ty,
uponany given day, the lnion armies MSie '"T FoT
double u number those oi the ConiedeIales' IYr
reserves the CoufcdeTates had rs many men a, ap
sent as present. the nation had behind us uhlod
force not aS vet enrolled ,,L;,
Grant could fairly count upon being able 10 oppoSe
70 Lee. One 10 two was what Lee could reasonably
expect 10 oppose to Grant. When Lee nhahy pG eoqk
up his defensive position at Petersburg ana Rich
mond he had fully 10000 men. and tins NUMBER was
kept up until the last ten days. Grants Desiegng
force was not far from 10000.
Two 10 One-gTantlng, as all men now hluSl, that
the opposing armies were of equal quallty-ls
large odds. But many defensive war mas been
successfully wayed with greater disparity The
problem presented to Lee was how, with 1000 men,
10 hold fortified place against lJOUO' Napoleon,
the great master of war. laid il down as an axiom
that 5000 National Guards, with 5000 gnnneIs WI WI
defend fortified capital against an army OK oVOV0
men," The advance IN the effectiveness OF weapons 0i
since NapolcOns time has rendered the odds slll
greater for the defense against the Oiese so secure
did Lee think himself within his lines that he ven
tured to detach fifth of his force under Early. upon
the ill-starred expedition to the Potomac and the
Shenandoah The utter annihilaten OF tins torce by
Sheridan was a heavy blow, but IN itself no wise
fatal one, for the COnfedeTacy Lee kept his num-
bers essentially unmpared down 10 the last ten days
they greater by third in number, and more
than double in actual efficiency those which Napo-
leon assumed could hold their position against twice
the force which had IT, III Lee could have
kept his army up to The COW0 OF 'VOO Whlch ne had
on the ls of April 1865 and could have supplied 1t
with food and munitions, there is no reason why he
should not to-day be holding Richmond and Peters
burg AGAINST any number that could be brought
aUa fhpm frut il Lee
from his lines by the imminent peril of starvation II
he renamed within them. The army had never ten
When the communications with the Valley were cut
oil by Sheridan, the Weldon railroad in the hands of
Grant the port of Wilmington closed and finally the
SOuthsidc and Danyille railroads so menaced that
their loss was only matter Of days, there was
nothing left for Lee but TO abandon his position.
Hence the desperate assault upon Fort Steadman'
and the strenuous efforts to gain little time by the
attempt force Sheridan and Warren back from the
Five Forks In these last endcayors he not only lost
third of his army, but wholly failed TO loosen the
grasp which Grant had gained upon his vital points
these vital points being, as every student OF
military history now cOmprehends and as Grant
had long before understood, the two railroads
yet remaining IN the hands of the Contedcrates.
Volunteer Is most strangely at fault when he
aflirms that Lee abandoned Richmond because Sher-
man was approaching the " back door OF the Con
fedeTate capital Sherman was twice aS far from the
back door, Grant had been from the front door ten
months previously Saving the single food,
there was 10 reason why Johnston-than whom
not have been brought within the dcfcnses of Rich
mOnd. With the forces under his command. and
those which he could have swept tegeIher upon his
march, he could easily have brought 5000 men.
These, added to Lees own army would have formed
a garrison of fully 10000 men, which so long as II
was kept mp, fed and maintained. could have held
RiGiim0nd against any possible number brought
against it, Leo in abandoning Richmond-for Pc
tcfsburg was but an outlying defense OF the Confed-
crate captalesSaycd to march into the very faee qt
Sn2,man Under dire stress of ipmlnent starvation,
81 na Y
open behind him. II he had succeeded in
Joining johnston on the confines of Virginia
aud North iCarolina, the contest might have
been protracted for space but the result could not
have been other than what was, unless indeed tho
Nation. following the course which Nallandlngnam
then advocated and which The World and ~ olnn-
teerD now adyocate-whereof there were no indlca-
have faltcrcd in its purpose of crushing
the inslrrection. Lee and Johnston would have been
ground sooner OF later, between the upper and the
neither millstones, Grant and Sherman, and Vol
unteer1 would have had chance TO ventilato his
opinions in another shape. Whether he would then
have dared to intimate, as he has now dared to do,
that Grant should have been shot for incapacity,
must remain unknown. What ho has written, II
written. Would il worther" | am, yours.
very truly, ALFRED H. GUERNSEY.