[
244]
not unknown to
Lee is shown by the following extracts from his letters to
President Davis.
On Sept. 13, from
Hagerstown, he wrote:
1 —
‘Our great embarrassment is the reduction of our ranks by straggling, which it seems impossible to prevent with our present regimental officers.
Our ranks are very much diminished,—I fear from a third to one-half of our original numbers,— though I have reason to hope our casualties in battle will not exceed 5000 men.’2
After the
battle of Sharpsburg, on Sept. 21, he wrote more fully, as follows: —
A great many men belonging to the army never entered Maryland at all; many returned after getting there, while others who crossed the river kept aloof.
The stream has not lessened since crossing the Potomac, though the cavalry has been constantly employed in endeavoring to arrest it. . . . Some immediate legislation, in my opinion, is required, and the most summary punishment should be authorized.
It ought to be construed into desertion in face of the enemy, and thus brought under the Rules and Articles of War.
‘To give you an idea of its extent, in some brigades, I will mention that on the morning after the battle of the 17th, Gen. Evans reported to me on the field, where he was holding the front position, that he had but 120 of his brigade present, and that the next brigade to his, that of Gen. Garnett, consisted of but 100 men. Gen. Pendleton reported that the brigades of Gens. Lawton and Armistead, left to guard the ford at Shepherdstown, together contained but 600 men. This is a woful condition of affairs.’
Lawton's brigade had been the largest in the army, and it had carried into action at
Gaines Mill, on June 27, 3500 men. It has seemed incredible to many writers that the small forces mentioned in many of the official reports, as engaged at
Sharpsburg, could be correctly stated; but I am satisfied from my own observations at the time that the following estimate by
Col. Walter H. Taylor,
Gen. Lee's adjutant, is essentially correct.
Col. Taylor, in his book
Four years with Lee, writes:—
The following recapitulation is established upon indisputable and contemporaneous authority, being nothing less than the testimony of the commanding officers, as shown by their official reports made at the time.
