The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1901-04-25
"DREADFUL THINGS"
GEN. STONES FALSE FIGURES AS TO CON-
FEDERATE KILLED.
With a White Population Of 625,ooo
in 1860 North Carolina Furnished
$4,000 Confederate Soldiers.
RaIeigh News and Observer

TO the Editor:-The Grand Army OF
the Republic people have recently been
finding some dreadful things in Southern
school histories General Stone, com
manding the Department OF the Potomac,
has bad his truth-lOving soul stirred to
it's prOfeundest depths by q statement in
one OF these histories that the Confeder-
acv never brought more than 6OO.OOO
men in the field Why" he is reported
in the Washington Post to have said,
I'VE killed and captured that many during
tn. first two years Of the war Killed
and captured SOC, 900 rebels before April,
1863,
The Confederate official reports made
bv the men who called the rolls and noted
on the spot the killed and captured show
the total to have been about One-tifteenth
Of W hat this virtuously indignant gentle
man. who burns to re-write Southern his
tory, affirms it to have been.
How unlucky it was for his side that
this General Stone. who knows 1t all
now, couldn't have known little then.
How it would have jOyed Mcclellan or
Pope or Burnside or Hooker or even Ben
Butler to have known Just the moment
when 600, 900 rebels or anywhere near
that number We're dead or captive, and
ming the Richmond works. Though Ben
Butler might have been afraid OF even
that number OF men, being brave only
against women and spoons.
So much for Yankee prOwess which
could kill and capture so many rebels in
two years that it has taken eight and
thirty years to count them. General
Stone has also focused his big counting
glass on the sum total OF the Confederate
armies.
There We're, he said, about 300
900 people in the South between the ages
OF fifteen and fifty, who participated :"
The General knew to Il man how many
rebels had been killed and captured up to
April r. 1868 but he hasn't yet had
quite time enough to count how many
there We're from fifteen to fifty years OF
age. 1t took him thirty eight year. to
count the 600, 900 He will at that rate
get the last rebel boy and old man count
ell by the fall of 1853. And General
Stones figures are well worth waiting
| for. Originality, real, unhampered, I'M
shackeled originality like his is Il mighty
scarce thing and we'll worth waiting for.
But Wills tarryiny for the returns
| down to the last man or boy. it will do
| no harm to do Il little figuring OF our
| own. We can't be as dead exact as this
| General OF the g. A. r.. but what we lack
| in exactness we can make up in speed.
! The shortest way to make this estimate
| would he to divide the Generals count
| by fifteen lust as the official reports have
done his 100000 killed and captured.
! But we won't do that at least. not until
| General Stone finishes counting
| Not having the gift of omniscience, we
must have to do with such vulgar things
| as at least two of the K s-reading and
| arithmetc-and even then not know to q
| man.
The census OF 1860 gave thepopulation
| Of the United States at 81 100000 in
| round NUMBERS Ofthese fully %. SOC. 600
! inhabited the nOn-slave holding States.
and Delaware, Maryland Missouri and
! Kentucky and the large portions OF Ten
nessee. Louisiana and Virginia. which
fell within the Federal lines early in the
| war This left the Southern COnfederacy
| proper fraction over 7. 900, 900 inhabi-
tants. D"ductng 5000, 900 negroes the
| COnfederacy shrinks to 1900 900 men,
women and children. and to still smaller
population as more and more territory
| was held by the Federal armies.
Now, North Carolina. with white
population OF G25, 900 in 1860 by raking
with IL fine tooth comb and taking all
| from sixteen to tftv-fve to war. cit her in
| the field or as reserves, got together
| 121 900 men. or rather men and boys.
| Had the same patriotic Willingness to
| volunteer been supplemented by the same
/ rigidly enforced CONSUMPTION laws in
| every nook and corner OF the Confederacy
| there could have been obtained at this
| ratiO-One soldier to five inhabitants
| SOC. 600 men for the Southern armies.
Not to speak of the lax enforcement Of
| the cOnscription laws in the isolated
| States OF the trans Mississippi depart
ment, it is we'll known that with the ex-
ception OF South Carolina, the combined
effect OF volunteering and the cOnscription
| was in other States. not only not equal
to what it was in North Carolina, but
| thas it was nowhere near it.
In view OF this knowledge it would ap-
pear that the closest possible estimate
that made by Confederate officers, which
places the total of Southern troops at
not exceeding 600. OOO-must be right
| These the North faced with over 2 :
| zoe. 900 men. In fact there were alone in
the Northern ranks more foreigners
900. 900 than there could have been
| Confederate soldiers, had the cradle and
the grave been robbed throughout the
| South, as the Holdenites said wa. the
| case in this State