The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1878-08-22

sxepetItion OF what his military secretary,
SStneraf Badeaif, wrote ID the Eohdon /
Egsnn1iard several years ago, and to which
Zf3enernl Eariy fsee volume IL, page q, /
l So,ltEe,n Historical Pnpersj made so crush I
4 Yrr,ly that NE can accoiInt Tor It's repe-
tiifon only from our knowledge OF the per.
s;stanry with which northern generals upd
northern writer's have endeavored to force
lItl,ls MISREPRESENTATION oil facts into history
The census Of 1860 shows that the Sfour-
steefh States from which the Confederncy
EdreW, any part OF its forces had Wnlte
Epopnfation OF only 7,946.l1l, OF which
s2, 49s, Sol belonged 10 Maryland, hentucky,
Eand Missouri, which three States iurnlsnea.
tlmore men because OF force OF surreanui ny
Eonfederate armies; sothat the total popu1,,
zion uron which the Confederacy conld
draw was really only 5,447,22o, Whlle ..le
| limited States had exclusive OF Maryiano,
KentuckV. and Missouri) population OF
fo'011 .3e1. Add to this the patent FACTS tnaI
Ge sonn Inst large portions OF our terrltory'
hat the limited States recruited very large
r from o1ir negro population, and that DIV
means of large bounties and other lnduce-
ments the Federal armies drew lrom Cne
ldense populations OF Europe very
barge proportion OF their leVles, anu
II will be seen that the odds against US
,,,rSt +, have been enormous. As for Gene
WAL Grants statement that our 80, OO0,Ooo OF
hneproes were Tie same as soldiers because
Ethey did the work In the fields which WINE
kmen would have to do" it is suiiiclent 10
reply that from the first the negroes were
anticed into the Federal lines, that they
Mere enlisted BY thousands III the federai
brmies. and that i! was very common Tor the
Eoung negro men to run OH, leaving only
the old men, the women, anu the chi!oren
rs n burden on the plantations and heavy
tax on the planters.
secretary Stanton (page 81 OF Ills report
|sfor 1867 states that there were actually
ifmustered into the Service OF the Unlted
Estates from the 18th OF April, 1861, TO the
Hath OF April, 1865, 2,656,553 men. Mr.
tSwinton, who had free access 10 the Con-
Moderate archives several years ago, states
THAT 100000 men in all were put into the
IConfederate service during the same pc
lriod, and his estimate is very nearly cor
rect. So that the official figures show that
the United States had in service more than
four times as many men as the Co'lfederncy
had. 49,.
MIR. Stanton states in this report (page 81
that the aggregate national military force OF
all arms the 1st Of May, 1864, was 970,7l0,
OF whom 662, 345 were prcsentfor duty
so that when the campaign Of 1864 opened
General Grant las commander in-chieD had
under his orders more men than the Con-
federacy mustered all put together during
the whole war, and more than -four times as
many as we had then under arms. AS Tor
the army with which General Grant opposed
General Lee, Secretary Stanton (page D puts
the aggregate available force present 1of
duty May /, 1864" as follows:
Department Of Washington 42 ia
nenartmt mt of Virginia and North Caro-
ncpariment of West Virginia. 30.7s2
Middle Department.. ................'...... ,n,62o
Ninth Army Corps. .......................'. Zo'Ico
+ So that General Grant crossed the Rapldan
with 141, 100 men, and had rs reserve
upon which he could draw an available
force of 137,672-making a grand total OF
27S, 1872. His own official report shows that
nearly the whole OF this force was actually
engaged in his and Buffers operations, or
in Hunters expedition, which latter Gene
raj Lee was compelled to meet by heavy de-
tachments from his own army.
TO meet this mighty host General Lee bad
on the Rapidian less than 10000 men, and
in his whole department of Northern
Virginia." which included the garrison
around Richmond and the troo ps in the val
lev. his field return for the last OF April,
1864. shows only 80, 626 "present for duty"
Add all of the troops which Beauregard
had in front OF Butler, or which Joined Lee
at any time during The campaign, and there
remains against General Grants stable
talk' or the ingenious manipulation OF bis
military secretary and facile interyicwerl
the stubborn official fact that General
Grant had OH that campaign Jour tunes as
manu- men as Lee could command.
General Grant says that "Lee was OF
slow. cautious, conservative naturc.' But
when military critics come to study this
campaign in the light OF all OF the facts; when
they see that so soon as Grant crossed the
Rapdan with bis mighty host, Lee, instead
of retrcating, advanced at once upon him
and forced the death grapple OF the Wilder
ness: that he boldly withstood him at Spot
sylyania Courthouse, at Hanover Junction,
and at Bethesda Church; and that after deal
ing him the crushing defeat ut Cold Harbor,
Lee was Just about to attack Grant, when
he crossed the James and sat down to the
siege OF Petersburg, we think that they VIII
hardly accept this "table-talk" as true, but
will rather conclude that Lee was one OF the
boldest soldiers of all history. The simple
truth - lIdL VII luut SlStlO baLhPhi7 IN
foiled Grant in every move he made,
defeated him in every battle they fought,
and so completely crushed him in
that last trial OF strength at Colo
Harbor that his men. refused to attack
again, and his brave army, "shaken in Its
structure, its vaor quenched in blood, and
thousands of its abcst officers killed or
wounded, was the Army Of the Potomac
no more" (Swinton). and the government
at Washington would have been ready to
give up the struggle if its further prosecu-
ton bad depended alone on "the great
butcher" Grant saws he lost in this CAM
paign, from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor,
SO, 900 men; but Swinton puts his loss al
over 60,GO0, and a careful examination OF
the figures OF the Surgcon-Generul VIII
show that his real loss was nearer 1OO,0oo.
In other words, he lost about twice as many
men as Lee had in order to take position
which he could have taken at first without
firing gun or losing Il man. 1t will take
large amount of s'table-talk" to get over
the logic of these facts and figures.
1t is gratifying to learn that the >ubscrip-
tion-list of the Papers is steadily increas-
ing, and that the Society is in much better
financial condition than ever before: but