[
220]
which the latter has never admitted.
Deducting the losses at
Cedar Run,
Pope must have had nearly 43,000 men in his three corps.
Reno joined him with 8,000 men on August 14th.
He had thus, on August 18, the day he began to withdraw behind the
Rappahannock, a total of 51,000 men against
Lee's 54,000.
General Gordon says: “At this time the
Union army was greatly outnumbered by the enemy.”
He exaggerates the Confederate forces to 63,500, without deigning to give any data for such an estimate, and in the face of the returns given by
Colonel Taylor.
This error of
General Gordon may have been due to want of information, but the opposite one in regard to
Pope's strength can hardly be thus explained.
He makes
Pope's strength, August 18, including
Reno, to have been only 42,000 men, in spite of
Pope's own official report, from which his numbers are seen to have been 51,000, as above.
Thus, by deducting 9,000 from one side and adding it to the other, he finds
Pope a reason for retreating that had no foundation in fact.
On his retreat
Pope was reinforced as follows (
Pope's report):
Reynolds' division, August 23 | 2,500 |
[General Gordon puts it at 4,500.] | |
Piatt's brigade of Sturgis' division, August 26 | 1,100 |
Heintzelman's and Porter's corps | 18,000 |
| |
[General Gordon puts them at 19,000.] | |
| 21,600 |
Strength on the Rappahannock | 51,000 |
| |
Total | 72,600 |
Or, taking General Gordon's figures, above | 75,600 |
Sturgis' division of 10,000, and
Cox's of 7,000, were being sent forward to
Pope when the breaking of the railroad stopped them.
Only one brigade of
Sturgis' reached him, but some of
Cox's troops were about
Manassas Junction.
Franklin's and
Sumner's corps joined
Pope at
Centreville after the battle.
Thus it is seen that in the series of fights ending with the 30th August,
General Pope had from 73,000 to 75,000 men against the 54,000 of the
Confederates.
There is no danger that the figures of the
Federal forces are too high.
General Pope was ever modest in estimating his own numbers.
Thus
Reynolds' division above, put by him at 2,500 in August, had over 6,000 after the battles around