Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 8.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

Strength of Ewell's division in the campaign of 1862--field returns.

The monthly returns for Ewell's division for the month of April, 1862, made out on the 1st of May, 1862, when the brigades were stationed at Conrad's store and Swift Run gap, in the Valley, show the following officers and men present for duty: [302]

Attached to Ewell's command were the Second and Sixth Virginia cavalry, whose strength present for duty was as follows: [303]

Cavalry temporarily attached:

Subsequent returns of Elzey's and Trimble's brigades, of the 10th of May, 1862, about ten days before Ewell's junction with Jackson, show that there was a slight diminution in the effective strength of each of these brigades. There is no return of Taylor's brigade of that date, but the return for May, made on the 1st of June, show a diminution of more than 400 in the effective strength [304] of that brigade. When the division went to the Valley, Elzey's brigade was composed of the Thirteenth Virginia regiment, the First Maryland regiment, and a battery of artillery.

On the 14th of June, 1862, just four days after the battle of Port Republic, the returns then made show the following number of officers and men present for duty in the infantry:

These are the last returns before the movement to join General Lee in the attack on McClellan. The First Maryland regiment had then been detached from Elzey's brigade, and the Twelfth Georgia, Twenty-fifth and Thirty-first Virginia regiments, had been transferred to it. The Forty-fourth, Fifty-second and Fifty-eighth Virginia regiments, all small regiments at that time, were subsequently transferred to the brigade, and constituted a part of it in the battles around Richmond. The artillery attached to tie brigades was absent at Mechum's River depot, to replenish ammunition and get new horses.

The returns for the division, made the 10th and 12th of July, 1862, the first full returns after the Seven Days Battles, show present for duty, in the infantry:

[305]

Elzey's (then Early's) brigade, then consisted of the Twelfth Georgia, and Thirteenth, Twenty-fifth, Thirty-first, Forty-fourth, Fifty-second and Fifty-eighth Virginia regiments, as it had done during the battles.

There was no return for Wheat's battalion, of Taylor's brigade, of that date, but the return for July 20th showed present for duty one officer and one hundred and eleven enlisted men.

The returns for the morning of the 9th of August, 1862, the day of the battle of Cedar Run, show in the division, present for duty:

The changes in the organization of the division since the Seven Days Battles had been the transfer of the Sixteenth Mississippi regiment from Trimble's brigade, the transfer of the Fifth and Fourteenth Louisiana regiments to Taylor's brigade, and the transfer of the Ninth Louisiana from it.

Before the 26th of August, 1862, Lawton's brigade was added to the division, Wheat's battalion of Taylor's brigade was disbanded, and the Forty-ninth Virginia regiment joined Early's brigade, and the returns for that day show in the division, present for duty:

Lawton's brigade was transferred to the division about the 13th of August, and a return of it for that day shows in its six infantry regiments, present for duty:

And an aggregate present, including extra duty men, sick, &c., of 2,520. Its losses in the Seven Days Battles amounted to 567.