A statement was made in some of the
Yankee newspapers, apparently upon the authority of
Gen. Meade, that
Gen. Lee's losses in the
battle of Gettysburg amounted to 33,000 men!
A more monstrous falsehood was never published even in a Yankee newspaper.
It contradicts itself, and is so plainly contradicted by subsequent events that it scarcely deserves the trouble of investigation; yet as there are persons among us who, though well meaning, are weak-hearted, and prone to believe the worst, if the loss of
Gen. Lee was so great, how comes it that a single man of his army was allowed to cross the
Potomac?
Why was it not pursued sword in hand, and either killed or captured by the innumerable cavalry which
Meade had at hand?
Why did the
Yankees first leave the field of battle, and leave it in possession of an army which had suffered so much?
Why was
Gen. Lee allowed to withdraw without the loss of a gun or a caisson?
The loss of 33,000 men would occasion the destruction of any army under 100,000 men strong, in such weather as we have had, and in the face of a force numerically so superior as that of
Meade's. It would have been routed beyond the possibility of rallying.
It would have dissolved like a snow wreath in the warm rains of Spring.
It would have become totally demoralized, and could not have been rallied to the colors.
Napoleon invaded
Belgium in 1815 with 122,400 men. He carried into the
battle of Waterloo the 2d and 5th corps of the
French army, numbering, after their losses in the battles of
Ligny and Lee Quatre Bras, 68,650 men. Of the rest 12,000 had been put
hors de combat by the battles above mentioned, 34,500 were with
Grouchy and did not come up, and 8,000 were left on the field of
Ligny.
The rout of
Waterloo was the most completes recorded in modern history.
Yet the
French lost only 29,000 men--4,000 less than the
Yankees affirm that
Lee lost in the
battle of Gettysburg, while it is certain that
Lee did not carry 120,000 with him into
Pennsylvania.
Like most habitual liars, these Yankees prove too much.
If they killed and wounded such a number of men for
Lee as they represent, they must have been the most miserable of all cowards to let him get off.
But the
Yankee army were not cowards.
They did not follow
Lee because they could not. They had been so badly beaten that pursuit was impossible.
The true loss of
Gen Lee did not probably reach 12,000 men, while their own as probably doubled that figure.--They were therefore in no condition to molest
Gen. Lee in any movement he might choose to make.
We are sorry to see Confederate letter writers exaggerating our losses almost as much as the
Yankees.
What do they propose to effect by such statements?
