The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1877-12-23
THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG.
A REVIEW or THE GREATEsr r RATTLE
or THE WAR or THE STATES.


The following Is the first part OF the exhaustive
and graphic ae3ount Of the battle of Gettysburg.
which appears in the December number of the
| Southern Historical Phpers, from the pen of
Minor Gen J. A. Early. one Of the most distin-
guipled Confederate leaders who took part in
that greai battle. A number of errors occur In
the article "a printed in the magazine. these
Gen. Early has corrected with his own hand for
the DEMOCRAT. The balance Of tho article, or
rather history. of the battle of Gettysburg, will
, appear during the week In our columns ED1-
ron DEMOCRAT.
Several of the papers reeenly published IN
relation TO the battle OF .Gettysburg contain
statements and views which In some respects
are erroneous esp eially In regar to The part
which Ewels co pa and It, com rnander bore In
the first and second days operations, and
therefore propose to review them. ms ] ain the
senior surviving officer Of that corps. whose
right to vlndica.e It's reputation and that OF its
commander will hardly bs disputed
] have too much respect and regard for the
officers whose statements and comments in re-
laion to the battle shall ,tiee and correct, to
suspect either Of them of the slightest desire to
mlsrepresent or pervett the faets. or to fuisead
others by their own specula,ions. ehhll, tlere-
fore. endeavor to be entirsly courteous to eaeh
any fact stated on tho Knowledge of the writer
who gives It.
main object 1 hnvo In view. must notice u
slight variance between the estimate OF the
strength of Gen. l. ,es army ut Gsttysburg made
by Col Walter II. Taylor and that nads by my
self; and Ia doing so. / will go to soms length
In giving the data on which my estimate Is
based. as the question OF numbers at that battle
Ia one of great interest:
In his mem rrandnm In tho August number Of
the Southern Historical Society Papers. ms we'll
as in tho paper reprinted in the september
derstood to be- an extract from the manuscript
of u volume on the war now In the hands Of o
publisher. Col. Taylor puts Cen Lses strength
ntI I,ttt, sjttrfs MT off n nd tu
timate is repeated by Den. Heth, whereas put
It ut something under Geooo, This variance s
by the the tse mt ne % H. hs
and Jones. which hnd been left guarding tho
passes OF the Blue Ridge when the last Of our
Hill. crossed the Potomac. whilst / exclude
them from mine. Those pr gades had remain d
south of tho Potomac on the duty assigned lhem
which orders were sent after Cen Lee received
informa ion. on tho night OF the 2gth of June.
that the Federal army. then under Hooker. had
the Potomac ut Willainsport on the I'd OF July,
lsee Schencks telegram. lat vol, Congressional
report On the Conduct of ths War I'd series , T., q
July too late to take any part in the battle. and
were posted on our right near Fairfield. as stu
art says. I'D vol. Society Papers. 65)
They We're. therefore. Of no avail to us In the
invasion Of Pennsylvania or In the battle of
Gettysburg but merely aided In guarding our
trains to the rear and observing the enemy when
which Gen. Lee fought the battle Of Gettysburg.
than there is for counting as part Of Msades
force ut the same battle the 10000 II 900 men
under French. ut Frederick and Harpers Ferry.
and the very considerable force under Couch, at
Harrisburg. all OF which were placed under
Meade's orders, and were actually employed
for the purpose Of watching Ewelfs advance to
the Susquehanna and harassing his rear
the case with Couch's force. and protecting
Meades communications to the rear, as was the
case with French's command. kobinson's aud
men. and vvrv probably over 5000 Take them
from Col. Taylors estimate OF $4,000. and there
will be l3f less than GO 900 as our real strength
also be- excluded from the estimate Of our force
Mt the battle rs he had been employed in de-
stroyipg the bridges on the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad and movet by way of McConnells.
burg. west Of Chhmbersburg, and by the latter
place. reach ng the vic vicinity Of aetiysburg late
any allowance for that brigade.
AS stated by Col. Taylor, our infantry, as
shown by the official returns Of the 3ist of May
previous. then numbered 54.3bG the arti lery
AGO and the cavalry 1886, making our whole
He says Pettgrew's Brigade joined the army
after that date: but to Offset the increase by rea-
son Of that accession, one Of his regiments and
the whole of Cor4e's Brigade of Picketts Dlvi-
sion remained in Virginia. at Hanover juno
My division was included In the force of in
fantry shown by the returns of May 81. Ii left
tue vicinity of fredericksburg on the 4 h Of JuLe
and ut Culpsper Cpurt-H usa on the 10TH when
It's strength was somewhat less than when my
return Of May wab made. by reason of o ex-
haustion. foot soreness and struggling common
to all armies another return was made. which
is now before me. and shows:
Officers. Men.
In Hayes Brigade, for duty -......-1 1877 1,495
In Hokes Brigade. for duty ,......l36 1854
In Cor lon's Briga 10. for duty ..... 1873 2.1gi
In Smith 8 Brigade, for duty .....- 149 1.23
Gl0 6.efG
6lO
In all, exclusive of division and brigade