Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 06.djvu/23

Rh service being liable to vary greatly from day to day." By "detached service," he evidently means "extra or daily duty," which is a very different thing from detached service. With this understanding as to his meaning, his remark, that the number of men on such duty varied greatly from day to day, does not apply to the Confederate army. At a very early day it had been found injudicious and unsafe to employ negroes as teamsters and laborers for the army when it was in an active campaign, and when the conscript act became a law, and all able-bodied white men were made liable to military duty, it of course became necessary to detail from the ranks all the teamsters and laboring men required. The number of these was very considerable, in order to furnish drivers for the baggage and supply trains, as well as such men as were required for manual labor in the several staff departments; and the details were permanent and of course not liable to vary from day to day. It was owing to this fact that the number of men reported on extra duty in the Confederate army greatly exceeded, in proportion to strength, that reported on extra or daily duty with the Federal army. With the latter the men on extra or daily duty might be made available for a fight, whereas in the Confederate army the teamsters, whose presence with their teams was always necessary, were no more available in a fight than the mules they drove.

The next errors to be noticed are found in the following passage: "Through the operations of the draft the effective strength of each regiment had been increased after Chancellorsville. The regiments had received some recruits between the 15th and the 31st of May; some more came between the 10th and 1st of June. Von Borcke says that the regiments of cavalry were largely increased in that way, but I am not satisfied by such vague statements, and in order to prove the fact I propose to calculate the average strength of the regiments from the known strength of several corps, divisions or brigades a few days before the battle, as stated by reliable authorities, and mostly by official reports."

The assumption that our army was increased in strength after Chancellorsville through the operation of the draft, or by recruits in any way, is without the slightest foundation in fact. Major Von Borcke's sketches are not at hand to refer to, but if he has made the remark attributed it to him, he is wholly mistaken. It is very far from my purpose to say anything in the slightest degree disparaging to that chivalrous foreigner, whose sympathy for our cause and gallant deeds in its defence have given him a place in the