The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-07-18

authorities, in the recent publication,
place the grand total at $4,000 men,
round numbers, embraced in so regi-
ments, irrespective Of some small local
organizations; all this out Of mill
tary population Of only GO, ,000in 1860.
The figures of the gallant and ac-
complished historian, Col. j. p.
Thomas, appear to me to be excessive,
and for the same general reasons l
have given in the references above to
the North Carolina estimates. To
claim that South Carolina had 65, 600
men in her 80 regiments would be to
give each Of the organizations an
original force Of !, 900 with subsequent
recruits of 300 each. Speaking
from something Of personal famili-
arity with the facts, would say that
Recruiting" was slow business III
South Carolina after 1861 and 1862.
When the war drums beat there first,
early in the struggle, there was an
impetuous rush to the front. After
the first call for the volunteers but
few of the men of military age were
left behind-the only source of supply
being in the maturing youth. The
conscription act scarcely affected the
result in that State, for the men were
already gone to the front. The neces-
sary exemptions were, however, large,
as was apparent to those passing
through the State, as / had occasion
to do several times during the war. 1
think TIA. liberal estimate Of the
troops actually in the service of the
Confedeiacy from South Carolina
would be $4,000, this not including
the thousands Of citizens Of Charles
ton who did occasional military duty
there. The State authorities claim
that over 1000 Of her sons were slain
in battle or died of wounds and sick
ness during the war.
The majority Of the South Carolina
troops were with Gen. Lee in Vir-
GINA. At the surrender at Appomat-
tox there we're only II regiments left
in the consultations; these had
force Of only $500, little over 200
TO the regiment. This would show,
according to the claims Of tho State
authorities, general loss of more
than thousand men to each of those
regiments for the whole period Of the
war, this including deaths and the
captive prisoners confined in the
Northern stockades and dungeons
The statistics show that the per-
centage of unexchanged prisoners lost
by the Cunfederates was about one in
every seven of the enlistment. IF
South Carolina lost 10000 in fatali-
ties, and 10000 in prisoners, she
should have $4,000 men yet in the
field, according to her historian, an
average of over 700 to the * timent.
Instead of this, we find that the aver
age is only little over 200.
Now, have been thus explicit in
the two illustrations, in order that we
may have soma bases for determining
the correct facts with regard to those
and other estimates which pardouable
State pride passes upon the State
sacrifices. In the termination of any
obscure problem, the elements Of first
value are always the known factors in
the problem. In mathematics the
unknown is measured by the laws
governing the known figures. And let
me repeat: In what I am saying I
have no desire to detract from the
glory or valor of the soldiery from any
of the States. Ijustly claim an inter-
est in the State pride of four of t;ie
Southern commonwealths contributing
to the glory of the Confederate SOL
der. First there is my native land,
Tennessee, then Virginia, North Caro-.
lima and South Carolina, within whose
borders / have lived, and whose sons
are-kindred with my own bloud.
But historic truth should be as pre-
olous to us all as State pride. What
I want in this matter is simple justice
to the real few who did the fighting
against the unparalleled odds fighting
against them. am not figuring for a
list which can appear in competition
and rivalry. I am using statistics
that cannot be ignored-figures that
tell their own tale Of terrible truth.
The cold and irrefutable papers in the
Confederate archives at Washington
show that, reducing ell the Southern
commands to the bases Of regiments"
there were less than 900 Of the differ
ent organizations from the Southern
States in the Confederate armies.