Officers present for duty | 514 |
Enlisted men present for duty | 5,124 |
Total | 5,638 |
He says: “My division, notwithstanding the absence of three small regiments, was fully an average one in our army.” This report agrees with my own recollection. My position in the army at that time made it my duty to know the strength of Ewell's corps. It contained on the 1st of June, just before we set out on the campaign fifteen thousand and a few hundred muskets. Longstreet's was somewhat stronger, but the difference was slight. This would make the Confederate infantry at the beginning of the campaign about 50,000 men. An addition of 10,000 for artillery and cavalry is liberal.
3. But Dr. Bates has in his own book the refutation of his estimates. It appears, from his roster of the two armies, that there were 239 Union and 163 Confederate regiments of infantry present at the battle. As a unit of organization the regiment was the same in both armies; and it is a well known fact that the Confederate regiments, except when newly formed, were never so full as the Federal ones. This was but the natural result of the more abundant facilities for recruiting on the one side than on the other. Now the Federal regiments — if the above enumeration be correct — must have averaged about 350 men, and the Confederate about 300 men, according to estimates made by each commander of his own force. This is a large estimate of the average strength of the Confederate regiments. But Dr. Bates' estimate would require them to have been over 460 strong (!) and the Federal only 300 (!), a result absurd on its face.
In regard to the Confederate losses, we have fuller data than as to their strength. The reports of Generals Longstreet and Ewell have both been published (though Dr. Bates seems unaware of it, as well as of the publication of General Lee's final report of the battle--Southern Magazine, August, 1872). The official report of losses by Longstreet (Southern Magazine, April, 1874) is — total killed, wounded and missing (including loss in artillery attached to the corps), 7,515, General Ewell reports his total losses while in Pennsylvania (Southern Magazine, June, 1873) at “6,094 aggregate.” General Hill's report has not been published (so far as I know), but as