National Republican., 1885-10-01
THE FORCES AT ApPoMArrox.
Exact omclai Figures Of the Strength
of Grants and OF Lees Army.


Correspondence Philadelphia Timl'.l
II ia strange that since the ON ,iil figures
Of the strength OF the contesiing armies in
the war OF the rebellion, rs furnished by
both commanders, are accessible to every
body, such statements as that lately pub
lished by Col, Sloan in your paper as to the
strength Of Grant and Lee Mt Appomlttox
Court House should find currency, csp1
ciully 0s Col Sloan In other respects gives
fair enough account. lie gives Lee 5000
with which to oppose Grants 10000 at the
surrender.
will pass over the ngenuOusncss Of the
dramatic effect intended by giving q state
mcnt OF forces Mt the last nom mt, when
there was no thought Of fighting, for n
criterion OF the strength Of the cOntenling
armies. Col. Sloan, before giving figures,
certainly ought to have refreshed his mem
DRY from the official returns. According to
these Grant had li0,Il5 officers and m1n In
oil the armies operating against Lee on
March !. 1875. before he hud fought Five
Forks. Sailors Creek, High Bridge, AppO.
mattOX, or the final attack on the Peters.
burg lines. Grant lost IN engagements
from March 90 to April q, 1865, alone, 0,D4i
men. lie left Wcitzel with his l5,0O0 men
to hold Petersburg and Richmond, AMI
hence could not have had more than ll5,O)J
not 40, ,000--mcn at AppomattoX. Hum
phreys puts II nt liz 900. In either case he
more than overmatched Lee In numbers,
and there Is no use In inventing 5000 more
men to make big mouthful.
Col Sloan reiterated the old exploded
story Of giving Lee 5000 men at Appomnt-
toX. AS according to his own returns he
had G3,G0i men on Feb. 20, 1865, not count
ing Rosser's cavalry, he must have lost
either by the prowess Of his enemy or his
own poor generalship the enormous number
of $4,000 men out of 6i,000, "a loss amount
ing to determination. The fact Is Col.
Sloan either wlllfully or ignorantly snbsti-
tuted the number of muskcts stacked
S,OUO--for the number Of men actually
parolcd on the spot-2S,35G, as | have
reason to know, having for a time had
charge OF the paroles, and these paroles, on
file In the War Department, show for them
selves; they are all signed by confederate
officers Where the proper officers hal
taken French leave, and there were num-
| hers Of such, no paroles could he made out,
| and II is n wcll-known fact that thousands
Of men didn't wait to I've parole1, but
walked of with their arms before IL took
place.
Ewell alone had only 2s7 on the spot for
| parole out Of n corps, which, on Feb. 90,
| numbered some H. 900 men, but he was eX-
! ceptional, his corps having been bodily cap.
| tured. LOnEstrcet had i4,S33 left Out OF
his corps. which had been increased since
| Feb. 20, when II only numbered some 1900
men. Gordon had 1900 left out OF his
corps that numbered 5000 on Feb. 30 An
dorson's, who numbered 1000 on Feb. 20,
had been broken up and divided around.
There were l,1S6 cavalry left out of some
COCO and some 2,5S6 artillery out of some
G,0O0.
So the figures Of the opposing armies at
the surrender stand as officially reported
Grant, Feb. 2S, 1855, li0,il5.
Lee, Feb. 90, 1865, 63,90i, exclusive OF
Rosscrs cavalry, somewhere around Rich.
mond.
Grant. at Appomattox, 1l5,000.
Lee, at AppOmattoX, 2S35b, instead OF
Grant li0, eco and Lee 5000, as given by
Col. Sloan Respectfully,
CHARLES F. KmTER,
Late chief clerk headquarters Array of the
Potomac.
WAR DEPARTMENT, Sept 81, 1885.