Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 24.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[179] did not exceed 2,000 muskets. At Cold Harbor, about the 1st of June, Hoke's Division, from Petersburg, joined General Lee, but Breckinridge's force was sent back immediately after its arrival near that place, on account of the defeat and death of General William E. Jones, at Piedmont, in the Shenandoah Valley, and Ewell's Corps, with two battalions of artillery, was detached under my command on the morning of the 13th of June to meet Hunter. This counterbalanced all reinforcements. The foregoing statement, which fully covers General Lee's strength, shows the disparity of forces between the two armies in the beginning, and it was never lessened after they reached the vicinity of Richmond and Petersburg, but was greatly increased. The curious may speculate as to what would have been the result if the resources in men and munitions of war of the two commanders had been reversed, or if Lee's strength had approximated Grant's. Occupying a neutral position, as between the two Federal commanders, Grant and Butler, and certainly having no reason to admire the latter, I cannot but be amused at the effort of Grant, by the use of few flash phrases, to make Butler the scapegoat of all his failures.

The disparity between the forces of Sheridan and myself in the Valley campaign was even greater than that between Lee and Grant. My force, when I arrived in front of the fortifications of Washington on the 11th of July, 1864, was 8,000 muskets, three small battalions of artillery with about forty field pieces, of which the largest were twelve pounder Napoleons, and about 2,000 badly mounted and equipped cavalry, of which a large portion had been detached to cut the railroads leading from Baltimore north. General Grant says that two divisions of the 6th Corps and the advance of the 19th Corps arrived at Washington before I did, and Mr. Stanton says I was met there by the 6th Corps, a part of the 19th Corps under General Emory, and a part of the 8th Corps under General Gilmore. My force had then marched over 500 miles, marching at least twenty miles each day, except the day of the fight at Monocacy, when it marched fourteen miles and fought and defeated Wallace.

At the battle of Winchester, or Opequan as it is called by General Grant, my effective strength was about 8,500 muskets, the three battalions of artillery and less than 3,000 cavalry. Sheridan's infantry consisted of the 6th, 19th and Cook's Corps, composed one division of the 8th Corps and what was called the ‘Army of West Virginia.’ Some idea may be formed of the strength of the 6th Corps when it is recollected that the Army of the Potomac was composed of