The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1890-07-17

| form us through The columns OF your paper which
lost the more men during the rebellion the North
or the Souih?-A. c. LOGAN, Creighton, Neb
EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: I am subscriber
| of your than valuable paper, and an old sol
der I am having tough times F." with two or
three employees of this Railroad Company, who
are southemcrs. They talk the same "bosh e" that
was talked before the war, viz: One Southern man
good and could whip somewhere from
three 90 10 Nanls That whenever won bat
lie we had five TO one. and that there more
CARS now living than there rebel soldiers
in the Southern army. Now l wish you would
give eight 10 of the most decisive battles. with
number Of men engaged on both sides, and, If pos
sibe. take the number Of Southern soldiers from
the records OF the South they will not be apt
10 dispute them. Also give number Of men en-
listed in the South during the entire four years.
and any other information that you think will
help me out.-JoHN NJ BURsLEY Co. G. ith Mimi.
First Brigade, Third Division, Fifteenth Corps,
Wiiston. n ID.
1t is impossible 10 give any figures to
answer our correspondents question, because
there are no reliable reports rs to rebel
strength and losses. There are no figures
worthy the name as TO the rebel strength in
any battle or campaign, and all that anyone
can do is to make the best guessp possible, using
as basis whatever facts are attainable The
rebels never made any pretensions to correct
ness in their reports, such as our officers did.
They were not compelled to, as our officers
were. With us, every man had to be &C
counted for, and there was a dozen check
systems TO verify the returns. For example,
the Paymaster had TO make returns of the
money paid each soldier, the Quartermaster
of arms and clothing issued to him, the Com
missaTy of the rations dealt out, and so on.
This was not the case with the rebels. They
forced into the ranks every man they could
lay their hands, and kept him there as long
as they could. He had TO clothe himself
with whatever was sent him from home, or
! he could pick up on the battlefield, or our
abandoned camps. The Commissary issued
whatever rations he could get from head
| quarters, press from the surrounding country,
OF obtain in any other manner, and the men
supplemented this by vigorous foraging.
Frequently they were sent of into n we'll
provisioned region TO board off the people for
months. The Paymaster's returns afford no
evidence, because the worthlessness of the
money rendered any attempt at strict book
keeping farcical.
All that we know definitely is that the
rebels put into their armies every able
bodied white man they could rake up in
population of10.0OO,0OO, and kept him there
until he was killed, died, deserted or was
/ disabled. This would indicate that they
had 100000 men under arms from first to
last, OF about three-quarters as many as the
Union armies had. They probably did not
lose so many killed in battle as we did, be-
cause they fought almost constantly on the
defensive, and modern arms give n great adj
vantage TO the soldiers standing on The de-
fensive, especially If they are behind works.
They probably lost more by disease than we
did, because, though we suffered greatly from
/ going from a cool, salubrious climate to a
hot. malarious one, and fully 10000 of our
men were starved TO death in prison, yet our
men were OF much higher intelligence than
the rank and ile Of the rebel army, under
stood the laws Of health better and took
better care Of their bodies than did the po'
/ white trash, /" which formed so large portion
Of the rebel armies. Then, too, they forced
into the ranks an immense lot Of old and
debilitated men, who died of very rapidly,
in camp and on the march So that, alto
gcther, We should say. the rebels lost fully
as many men by death as we did
Itisyery hard work TO get any satisfactory
idea Of the rebel strength in any battle or
campaign. Especially was this true if they
were defeated, for then they strained every
nerve TO minimize their forces TO the last
degree, so as 10 excuse their failure. For
example, after Sheridan sent Early whirl-
ing up the Valley" the latter claimed that
he had entered the battle with only 5000
men. Sheridan made a crushing reply to
this Galsehood by publishing the Provost
Marshal-General's receipt for 1900 prison
ers captured from Early and turned over 10
him. Clearly somebody lied, and il was not
Phil Sheridan.
Joe Johnston claims that he had some
thing over 10000 men on the Atlanta cam.
paign, while Jeff Davis insists that he had
about Is 900. Therebels claim TO have stacked
only 1000 muskets at Appomattox, Will.
Lee made official statement to Gen. GRAM
that he would need $4,000 rations to fec
his men. These were issued, proved INSULT
Gent and several thousand more were issue
from rebel supplies which had been captured
This would indicate that Lee still had viii
him about oDe-half of the 10000 men Wit
which he had. been confronting Grant a
Petersburg.
Part Of the discrepancies in the rebe
reports Of their strength in battle is not du
:" 10 deliberate intention TO deceive. The
= occupied interior lines nearly all the tim,
n