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This calculation takes no account of stragglers, skulkers, and deserters, who, the rebel general himself declares, were numerous, and who, all the showing is, abounded in every part of the Confederacy at this period of the war, when so many were disheartened and despairing.
If this was the case elsewhere, it must have been particularly so in an army demoralized to the extent which Early describes,1 and which had so lost confidence in its leader, that Lee, on this account, was compelled to relieve him from command.
“ A good many are missing as stragglers, and a number of those reported missing in the infantry were not captured, but are stragglers and skulkers.
”Early to Lee, Oct. 9, 1864, after Winchester.
“ Very many of the missing in the infantry took to the mountains; a number of them have since come in, and others are still out.
”Idem, after Fisher's Hill.
“ I am sorry to say many men threw away their arms.
”Idem.
New York Appleton 1885.
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