The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-07-03


Armies At The Wars End.
Aggregate Federal army May
L, 1860 600, 81 6
Aggregate Confederate army
May /, 1865 ..... t133.433
Confed- FEEDER
No in Battle. crates. ais.
Seven days fight. 80,S35 5,249
Antietam ......... 1925 S7164
Charlottesville -. 57,212 131, G61
Fredericksburg -. 1910 10000
| Gettysburg 5000. $4,000 $4,000
Chickamauga 1890. $4,000 $4,000
Wilderness ........ 63,987 141, leo
Federal prisoners in Confed-
crate prisons ........ 100000
Confederate prisoners in Fed
eral prisons ....... 100000
Confederates died in Federal
prisons 26,436
Federals died in Confederate
pIlSOuS "
After all of lying and bullying of
the North as to Federal prisoners in
Southern prisons behold the above
figures and marvel! 1t will be seen
how much worse the Confederates
Jared at the hands of their vindictive
enemies than the Federals Jared when
prisoners of war. General Boynton
talks rot when he undertakes to
deny the vast number of foreigners
helping the Yankee to fight a brave
people struggling for liberty and inde-
pendence. / saw only a few days ago
what he said, and the admission of
Mr. Thompson as to the Confederate
strength. Mr.. Lee probably got his
figures from the Handbook or the
Records of the United States.
l said at the outset that it was an
old trick Of the Northern enemies to
exaggerate the numbers of the Con-
federates in battle, and to minimize
the actual force of the Northern in
Saders. Probably not many of my
readers in 1904 remember that Cen
eral Jubal Early. of Virginia, publish
ed book in Canada regarding historic
myths and fictions. l do not remem-
Der the title of the book, but he as
serted that the Federal Generals usu-
ally exaggerated the actual strength
of the Confederates. He stated that
Generals Mcclellan, Grant, Meade and
Sheridan never failed in all their dis
patches, to place the forces of the
Confederates they fought at three or
four times their real number. Other
Confederate commanders had noted
corresponding exaggerationS on the
part of the enemy Take the battles
around ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS sent out
that Lees army amounted to 200, 600.
General Lee began the fight with &c.
S35. How many Mcclellan had I can
not give for the reason already stated.
IL he had not had more than Lee had
there would never have been seven
days of fighting, but one would have
finished the game. And so with
Grant. If Lee could have met him in
the first battle with an equal force
the campaign would have ended then
and there. Mcclellan reported that
Lee had over 100000 at Sharpsburg
(called by the Yanks 'Antietam,")
and yet it is almost certain that the
Confederates did not exceed $4,000.
General ID. II. Hill thought it less. and
| have some recollection that General
Lee himself did not give il beyond
$4,000 And so with many other bat
lies. vfriSiu, li,.s, -aid titat - y
often reported more prisoners captur-
ed than the Confederates numbered.
These lies viii be passed on down the
stream of romance and alleged history
as verities, and hence the recent eff
fort to reduce the army of the North
and to add greatly to that of the
South. The great Liar Of the great
war is mounted upon seven league
boots now. Posterity will be greatly
humbugged if the great Liar has 1t all
his own way.
Let me refer the reader to Weyth's
most entertaining and instructive
Life OF General Forrest" for scores
of examples Of Northern lying and ex-
aggeration of the real strength Of Con-
| federates. The falsehoods abound and
the liars are numerous. Consult the
book and see for yourself Most of
the lying was done by telegraph.
The one MANTLE sole historian
the North had, who loved the truth.
is gone. He was beginning to write
of the great war. IL was John L.
Ropes, Of Boston. His death was
indeed a signal loss to the country A
long time ago the New Orleans Times
saw the drift of exaggeration and null
tiplied falsehood and il said:
Some future Niebuhr and Bancroft
will be greatly puzzled to get at the
real truth through such a mass of
error and exaggeration as has been
accumulated by the one-sided parti-
san. hastily prepared and falsely
styled histories of our recent war"
The effort at prevarication and mis-
representation does not appear limited
to the North. I have tried in several
articles recently to show up the unre-
liable writer's who have attempted to
deal with North Carolina in the war,
and to withhold from our heroic dead
and living that guerdon of praise to
which they are entitled by the most
conspicuous gallantry, unselhSh pa
triotism and hardy endurance. | can
not see how any true North Carolinian
can be silent or Indifferent unless he
sees the work Of the heated partisan
ship or lamentable ignorance i'm steadi-
ly slandering the bravest and most
faithful of soldiers without endeavor-
ing to expose the injustice and base
ness of those attacks, so pertinaciously
made and repeated without stint.
have long ago entered protest
as early as 1S67-against any and
every attempt to falsify historic facts
or TO blacken the memory OF those
who have fallen or who survive. And
it applies to all the States in this dear
Southland. 1t is shame and re-
proach, that any writer should dare to
reflect upon the heroic bravery or the
soldiers of any of our Southern sister,
hood of States. when together with
unitad hearts and united arms they