Page:A Memoir of the Last Year of the War for Independence in the Confederate States of America.djvu/139

Rh And again he says:—

This does not include that portion of the Federal forces consisting of the regular army, and the negro troops raised in the Southern States; which were not raised by calls on the States. It is impossible for me to state the number of troops called into the service of the Confederate Government during the war, as all its records fell into the hands of the United States authorities, or were destroyed, but I think I can safely assert that the "available force present for duty" in the Federal army, at the beginning or close of the last year of the war, exceeded the entire force called into the Confederate service during the whole war; and when it is considered that the troops called into the United States service during that time, numbered more than one-third of the entire free population of the Confederate States, men, women, and children, the world can appreciate the profound ability of the leaders, and the great heroism of the soldiers, of that army which finally overcame the Confederate army, by the "mere attrition" of numbers, after a prolonged struggle of four years. They can be excelled only by the magnanimity of the conquerors.