Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/313

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, May 3, 1880.

, Secretary Southern Historical Society:

—I have recently obtained from one of my staff officers, who had charge of them, a large number of the official papers of Ewell's division, subsequently commanded by me, and among them I find the official returns of the strength of the division at and before the important campaigns and battles of 1862, in which it participated, and as it happens that these returns are not among those in the Confederate archives at Washington, to which Colonel Taylor had access, and from which he has given abstracts in his "Four Year's with General Lee," I send you herewith abstracts from the returns of the division, which will show its strength in the Valley campaign of 1862, at the Seven Days' Battles around Richmond, and in the campaign of August, 1862, against Pope. The returns of Lawton's brigade, when it joined Ewell's division, will give the means of estimating the strength of that brigade in the Seven Days' Battles, about which some persons appear to be under a great misapprehension.

I send also the official report of General Trimble of the operations of his brigade about Manassas, in August, 1862, which happens not to be published among the reports of the operations of the Army of Northern Virginia for 1862, owing to the fact that the report was written and received after my report of the operations of the division had been sent in. It is an interesting report, and constitutes a valuable contribution to the history of the campaign to which it has reference.

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The monthly returns for Ewell's division for the month of April, 1862, made out on the 1st of May, 1862, when the brigades were stationed at Conrad's store and Swift Run gap, in the Valley, show the following officers and men present for duty: