Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 01.djvu/375

 him at Hagerstown, where he had an impassable river behind him.

But if Dr. Bates has dealt unfairly with the Federal reports of strength and losses at Gettysburg, he has hardly deigned to notice the Confederate sources of information at all. His estimate of General Lee's force is derived entirely from the guesses of Generals Hooker and Meade. General Hooker says, according to Dr. Bates: "With regard to the enemy's force, I had reliable information. Two Union men had counted them as they passed through Hagerstown, and in order that there might be no mistake, they compared notes every night, and if their counts differed, they were satisfactorily adjusted by compromise. In round numbers, Lee had 91,000 infantry and 280 pieces of artillery; marching with that column were about 6,000 cavalry." He adds that Stuart's cavalry, which crossed the Potomac at Seneca, "numbered about 5,000 men." Such information as this may have been useful to a commander before a battle, who was very anxious not to underrate his enemy, but is altogether valueless to the historian. General Meade's estimate given above, puts General Lee's force at nearly the same. In addition to these estimates, which he assumes as true, Dr. Bates on the authority of Swinton, reports General Longstreet as saying "that there were at Gettysburg 67,000 bayonets, or above 70,000 of all arms." The only attempt at using Confederate information on a point in regard to which they alone could give accurate information, is thus a second-hand statement from General Longstreet, which conflicts (as will be shown) with all the other Confederate authorities, and is certainly erroneous. The attempt of Dr. Bates to reconcile the estimate of Hooker and Meade, with the alleged statement of Longstreet, leads to an amusing calculation. Having ciphered the Federal army from 95,000 to 72,000, by comparing Butterfield's report of Reynolds' corps for June 10th, and Doubleday's estimate of it on July 1st, he applies the same arithmetic to Lee's army, and states that "we may therefore fairly conclude that Lee crossed the Potomac with something over 100,000 men, and actually had upon the field in the neighborhood of 76,300."

General Lee had crossed the Potomac but ten days before; had marched unopposed and at his leisure through a hostile country into central Pennsylvania; had concentrated his entire force except Stuart's cavalry (which did not cross the Potomac with the main army) and Imboden's small command—at Gettysburg; and yet under these circumstances was, according to Dr. Bates, able to