Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 21.djvu/70

 62 Southern Historical Society Papers.

In an elaborate note on page 439 he assails Colonel Taylor's state- ment in " Four Years with General Lee," that Lee had at that time only 39,879 available muskets for the defence of the Richmond and Petersburg lines, and endeavors to support his (Badeau's) statement of Lee's effective strength by a remarkably vulnerable argument.

Badeau writes as if he thought Lee's return of February 20, 1865, included only the troops stationed in and around the Richmond and Petersburg lines. The return is copied in Badeau's work, and he comments upon it and analyzes it. That return, which was before his eyes when he wrote it, shows on its face that it included not only Lee's troops stationed around Richmond and Petersburg, but the troops as well of Early stationed in the Valley and then numbering 3,105 enlisted men, and also the troops under Walker on the railroad defences, numbering 1,414 enlisted men, and unattached commands numbering 504 enlisted men. Badeau assumes, indeed asserts, that the troops in the Valley and those on the Richmond and Danville defences were used in the final defence of the Richmond and Peters- burg lines. Was he so ignorant of events of which he writes that he did not know that over half of Early 's little force in the Valley included in that return was either killed, wounded or captured in battle near Waynesboro, Va., with Sheridan's cavalry on March 2, 1865? Those who escaped were disorganized, and when reorgan- ized the greater part of them remained in the Valley not over a fifth of the force, if that much, ever reached Lee. The troops on the Richmond and Danville railroad, the integrity of which line of sup- ply was so vital to Lee, and then so heavily threatened, were, of course, not available to guard the Petersburg lines.

Badeau's method of arriving at Lee's effective strength on the 25th of March, 1865, is, indeed, remarkable throughout. He cites Lee's return of February 20, 1865, which, as we have seen, included not only Lee's troops around Richmond and Petersburg, but those in the Valley and on the railroad defences and some unattached com- mands, and says that for the "Army of Northern Virginia alone" the return shows 59,094 men present for duty, and an aggregate of 73,349. He then nearly doubles Ewell's effective strength (which, it seems, was not included in Lee's return of February 20, 1865), and adding that to the aggregate already reported, gives Lee an aggre- gate of 78,433 on March 25, 1865, exclusive of the naval battalion and some horse guards or local reserves. From this aggregate, in