Appendix No. 2
Reading edition
In concluding my reminiscences I have determined to add some statistics as to the campaigns, strength and losses of the two greatest armies of the war—the Army of Northern Virginia and the Federal Army of the Potomac. Never before in modern warfare had it fallen to the lot of two such armies to fight so many bloody battles, with neither able to obtain any decided advantage over the other. Beginning with the battles around Richmond in the spring of 1862, to the close at Appomattox, these two armies fought many battles through seven great campaigns. The Army of Northern Virginia, under General Lee, numbering at its greatest not exceeding 80,000 men, certainly greatly inferior in numbers to that opposed—badly armed, equipped and fed, fought against six most distinguished Federal commanders, to-wit:
McClellan before Richmond.
Pope, Cedar Mountain and Manassas.
McClellan in Maryland.
Burnside at Fredericksburg.
Hooker at Chancellorsville.
Meade at Gettysburg.
Grant from the Rapidan to Appomattox.
In these campaigns the Federals lost in the aggregate about 263,000 men. The Confederate loss is not definitely known.
General Grant's casualties were about 124,390 men, and in his campaign from March 29, 1865, to April 9, 1865, his losses were 9944.
General Lee's surrender at Appomattox embraced 28,356 men, of whom only 8000 had arms, the residue being largely made up of broken down, barefoot and sick men, teamsters and attaches of the medical, ordnance, quartermaster, and commissary departments.
It may be of interest to the reader to know the number of men enrolled in the Union and the Confederate armies during the war, and the losses in killed, wounded, and prisoners held by each.
Official compilation shows that there were enrolled of white troops in the Union army 2,494,592
Negro troops 178,975
Total 2,673,567
Of this number the white troops from the Southern and border states 278,923
Negro troops 140,298
419,221
The enrollment of Confederate troops, estimated 700,000
This may not be entirely correct, but is believed to be substantially so.
The Union losses in killed, died from wounds, disease, and from other causes 360,212
Of which the killed in action were 67,058
Died of wounds received in action 43,012
Died of disease 224,586
Deaths from other causes, or from causes unknown 25,556
Total 360,212
The Confederate losses, as far as can be ascertained, though not believed to be entirely correct, were as follows:
Killed in action 52,954
Died of wounds 21,570
Died of disease 59,297
Total 133,821
The number of Confederate prisoners taken and held by the Federal government during the war was 220,000
Number that died in Northern prisons (12 per cent of the total) 26,000
Number of Union prisoners held by Confederates 270,000
Number that died in Southern prisons (less than 9 per cent) 22,000
Confederate soldiers paroled, 1865 174,223
Number of battles and skirmishes fought during the war, over two thousand.
NOTE—The most of the above statistics were obtained from "Confederate Military History," edited by General Clement A. Evans, and from "The Century Book of Facts," by Ruoff.
Transcriber's Note:
Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed.