Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee

[168] numbers he could at least die with it and share its fate; that he felt there was no use in his again asking for re-enforcements. It seems that McClellan was deceived to some extent by the report of his chief of Secret-Service Corps. This was a corps one of whose objects was to question prisoners and deserters and ascertain in every other possible way the numbers of Lee's army. He was fully convinced he had to fight two hundred thousand troops. Lee's army numbered at the beginning of these combats eighty-one thousand. It was composed of thirty-nine brigades of infantry (twelve more, including those under Jackson, than General Johnston had when he relinquished the command at Seven Pines), six regiments and three battalions of cavalry, and sixteen batteries of reserve artillery (exclusive of those with the various infantry divisions). Fifty-three thousand Southern troops were massed on McClellan's right, and constituted the force which attacked Porter's command, numbering of all arms of service about thirtysix thousand men; while twenty-eight thousand Confederate troops stood between some seventy thousand of McClellan's army on the south bank of the Chickahominy and Richmond. The certified morning reports of the Federal Army of the Potomac, dated June 20, 1862, gives 115,102 as the aggregate present for duty. Six days later, when the battles commenced, the force probably did not exceed one hundred and five thousand. If in round numbers we put it at one hundred thousand, Lee was outnumbered nineteen thousand. When McClellan discovered that his opponent had on the left bank of the Chickahominy two thirds of his army, but three courses were left to him: One, to re-enforce the three divisions of Porter. Another, to strengthen and fortify the position along Beaver Dam Creek, and, relying on Porter to hold at bay as long as possible Jackson, Longstreet, and the two Hills, boldly set in motion his four corps on the right bank of the Chickahominy for the coveted prize, his enemy's capital. By destroying Huger and Magruder or crippling them, a portion of his troops could have kept them quiet, and then, facing about with the remainder, he might have marched to Porter's assistance and possibly defeated Lee. It was hazardous, however.