[
301]
Washington may be formed from the return for the 31st of August, 1864, given by
Colonel Taylor in his book, page 178. This, I presume, is the earliest return on file in the
Archive Office after I was detached, and is as follows:
| Breckinridge's division (total effective) | 2,104 |
| Rodes's division (total effective) | 3,013 |
| Gordon's division (total effective) | 2,544 |
| Ramseur's division (total effective) | 1,909 |
| | |
| Aggregate | 9,570 |
The strength of the cavalry and artillery is not given, but both could not have exceeded 3,000.
By this time all the stragglers had rejoined me, and some of those wounded in the campaign from the
Wilderness had returned to their regiments.
General Barnard, in his report, page 121, has made an estimate of my strength on what he calls “circumstantial evidence,” by which he makes my force amount to 22,420 in front of
Washington.
In order to ascertain this number he assumes my regiments of infantry at ninety-nine, and then assumes that each regiment numbered 180 men and officers.
I have before me a printed roster of our armies, compiled at the
Archive Office at
Washington, which gives the number of my infantry regiments and battalions at seventy-four, and in this I am credited with some commands that were not with me.
In
Gordon's division, which was formed by taking two of the brigades from my division and uniting them with the remnant of
Johnson's division, after the disaster of the 12th of May, to form a division for
Gordon, there were thirty regiments.
Giving 180 to each regiment would make an aggregate of 5,400 for the division.
In one of the brigades in his division there were the remnants of thirteen regiments, being all that was left of the
Virginia regiments in
Johnson's division.
An average of 180 for those regiments would give 2,340 for the brigade, and yet
Gordon's whole division numbered, on the 31st of August, 1864, only 2,544, as shown by the returns of that date.
On the same “circumstantial evidence” he gives me thirty-six regiments of cavalry, for which he assumes one hundred men and officers as the average, making my cavalry force 3,600; yet the number of cavalry regiments with me, including the dismounted brigade and the one that was detached, did not exceed twenty-two.
On the same kind of evidence he gives me sixty pieces of artillery, and in a note says that this number was actually counted in passing the
South Mountain.
As my forces passed through two gaps in the
South Mountain, a part of the artillery accompanying each column, I should like to know who.
