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states, “There have been issued, therefore, to the Army of the Potomac, since the battles in front of
Washington, to replace losses, (9254) nine thousand two hundred and fifty-four horses.”
From this statement a reader would naturally infer that this number had been sent to the army under
General McClellan; but it appears from a report of
Colonel Myers, the
chief quartermaster with that army, that only (3813) three thousand eight. hundred and thirteen came to the forces with which
General McClellan was ordered to follow and attack the enemy, and that these were not enough to supply the places of the animals disabled by sickness and overwork; and
General McClellan distinctly states that on the 21st of October, after deducting the force engaged in picketing the river, he had but about a thousand serviceable cavalry-horses.
General Halleck, in a letter to General McClellan dated October 14, 1862, in reply to a despatch of the 12th, says,--
In regard to horses, you say that the present rate of supply is only one hundred and fifty per week for the entire army here and in front of Washington.
I find from the records that the issues for the last six weeks have been eight thousand seven hundred and fifty-four, making an average per week of one thousand four hundred and fifty-nine.
The same charge is repeated in his letter to the Secretary of War of October 28, and is also found in Genera] Meigs's letter of October 14.
In the
