Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 01.djvu/424

 loss appears to have been at least 6,074. It appears from the reports of Pickett and Wilcox, which we also have, that a portion of this loss was sustained on the second day. It also appears from Hill's and Pickett's reports that Mahone and Armistead's brigades, of Huger's division, were seriously engaged on the second day, but whether Longstreet includes Huger's loss in his statement does not clearly appear.

In your book you state that your army at Seven Pines was composed of 27 brigades, and they were as follows: 6 in Longstreet's division, 6 in A. P. Hill's division, 4 in D. H. Hill's division, 6 in Magruder's command (composed of 3 divisions of 2 brigades each), 3 in Huger's division, and 2 in Whiting's division—in all, 27. General Lee had 39 brigades of infantry under his command in the battles around Richmond—to wit: 6 in Longstreet's division, 6 in A. P. Hill's division, 5 in D. H. Hill's division, including Ripley's brigade; 6 in Magruder's command, 4 in Huger's division, including Ransom's brigade from Holmes' command; 3 in Holmes' division, including Wise's small brigade, and 9 under Jackson, including his own division of 3 brigades, Ewell's of 3 brigades, Whiting's 2 brigades, and Lawton's brigade—the twelve brigades added after Seven Pines being Ripley's, Lawton's, Ransom's, J. G. Walker's, Daniel's, Wise's (2 regiments), and the 6 brigades of Jackson and Ewell—making the twelve. All of this appears from the official reports contained in the first volume of the Reports of the OpetionsOperations [sic] of the Army of Northern Virginia for 1862. Ripley's was the first brigade that arrived, and in his report (page 234) he says: "The aggregate force which entered into the series of engagements on the 26th of June was twenty-three hundred and sixty-six, including pioneers and the ambulance corps." But you suggest that the large brigades may have been divided, and a portion of them distributed in other brigades. Ripley says: "In conclusion, I beg to remark that the troops of this brigade, arriving at Richmond just after the Battle of Seven Pines, were ordered immediately to the front, and performed picket and out-post duty, with slight intermission, until the march towards Mechanicsville. Two of the regiments—the First and Third North Carolina—had been some time in service, but not in action. The Forty-fourth and Forty-eighth Georgia were new troops, and it is perhaps to be regretted, as the whole were engaged for the first time, that some further opportunity could not have been afforded for perfecting their organization and discipline as a brigade."

The fair inference from this statement is, that the four regiments mentioned constituted the whole of his brigade when he brought it to Richmond, and his report shows that the whole of them were still in the brigade. The next brigades that came were Holmes' three—to wit: Ransom's, J. G. Walker's and Daniel's. Ransom says, on page 365: "On the 24th ultimo the brigade left Petersburg for Richmond, with orders to report to General Lee. About 10 o'clock at night I reached Richmond, with the Twenty-fifth