Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 22.djvu/327

 Memorial of Gt'H. . I "I'ol .1. /,'//(//. 315

September there were 60 killed and 288 wounded, and putting them at 1,000, which is very excessive for the three battles, they would show that Sheridan's loss in killed and wounded was much greater than Early's, and Early's losses greater in prisoners, yet all told for the three fights Early's aggregate loss more than 2,000 less.

What such a man could have done with resources to match his genius can be left only to inspire the imagination.

As to prisoners, Grant says, in his memoirs, that Early had lost more men killed, wounded and captured, than Sheridan had com- manded from first to last. How such an absurd statement could have gotten into printer's ink is unaccountable. This is contradicted by Sheridan himself, for he reports that from August i, 1864, to March i, 1865, the prisoners received by his provost-marshal were about 13,000. (See War Records, Serial 91, page 60.) Grant forgets he had instructed Sheridan to consider citizens under fifty years old as prisoners of war, and not as citizen prisoners (See Grant's order of August 16, 1864, Sheridan's Memoirs, first volume, page 486), and this 13,000 embraced all deserters, stragglers, furloughed sol- diers of Lee's army, army-agents of all kinds, and all citizens who were carried to Washington, whether soldiers or otherwise. The truth is patent that I have made good my statement that Early killed, wounded and captured from Hunter, Wallace and Sheridan more men than he could ever muster upon any battle-field against either of them, and Grant has turned the truth of history upside down, in a manner that no one who reads its records can explain.

CRITICISMS UPON EARLY.

To say that Early had faults is to say that he was human; and, as Marshal Turenne reminds us, "to say that he made mistakes, is to say that he made war." But even at this day it is difficult to take his problem and its resources and say where or when he might have better brought them in conjunction the one to solve the other. To figure on his case at any time was to demonstrate failure; and so many heroic virtues postponed that failure and glorified it that I leave it for others to search for the mistakes and faults. For my part I am too much filled with honor for the man and the deed to look for or to exploit them, and most of the criticisms upon him are easily answered.

It was said that he should have attacked Hunter on the :8th of June, the day after he got to Lynchburg. Suffice to answer,