Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 06.djvu/39

Rh and artillery equipped and ready for the fight on the 30th, under the heading of "Present for duty equipped." At the foot of the transcript, which is given on the regular printed form, is this printed note: "Under the heading 'Present for duty equipped' only those will be given who are actually available for the line of battle at the date of the regimental reports"—that is, it includes none but line officers and men who actually go into the fight. For June 30th the number so present and equipped in the cavalry is not given, but it is given in the return for July 10th, and then amounted to 11,045. It can therefore be safely assumed to have been 12,000 at Gettysburg. The numbers under that heading then are as follows:

Thus we get the actual fighting force available, after eliminating all the general and staff officers, provost guard, engineer brigade, signal corps and guards and orderlies, at over 100,000 officers and men. In my estimate of our own strength, I have only taken out the staff officers, who, under no circumstances, were required to get under fire, and left in all general officers and their staff officers, including engineer officers, as well as the non-commissioned staff officers. By an examination of the returns for the reserve artillery and the corps, it will be seen that besides the 2,580 at army headquarters, there are 2,803 officers and men reported for duty who, are excluded from the statement of the "Present for duty equipped" in Meade's army.

No amount of figuring by the Comte de Paris, and no hocus pocus with his figures by General Humphreys, can evade the conclusive proof of the official return of the 30th of June, which bears Meade's signature.

Add for Lockwood's and Stannard's brigades, the increase in the