Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 24.djvu/189

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brought off. Pursuit was not made to Mount Jackson, as stated by both ( ir.mt and Stanton, hut my troops were halted for the night at I-"iher's Hill, three miles from Cedar creek, and the next day moved hark to New Market, six miles from Mount Jackson, without any pursuit at all. So far from its being true, as stated by Mr. Stanton, that no force appeared in the Valley after this, the fact is that I reor- gani/ed my force at New Market, and on the loth of November moved down the Valley again and confronted Sheridan on the nth and I2th in front of his intrenchments between Newtown and Kearns- town, and then retired back to New Market because provisions and forage could not be obtained in the lower Valley. The expeditions by which the posts of New creek and Beverly were subsequently captured, were sent out also from my force in the Valley. The strong force which General Grant says was entrenched under me at Waynesboro, when Sheridan advanced up the Valley in the latter part of February, 1865, with two divisions of cavalry of 5,000 each (10,000 in all), consisted of about 1,000 infantry and a few pieces oi artillery, most of my infantry having been returned to General Lee to meet corresponding detachments from Sheridan to Grant, and all my cavalry and most of the artillery having been sent off on account of the impossibility of foraging the horses in the Valley. Obvious reasons of policy prevented any publication of these facts during the war, and it will now be seen that I was leading a forlorn hope all the time, and the public can appreciate the character of the victories won by Sheridan over me.

The statements I have made are from facts coming within my own knowledge, and they are made to show the disparity between the Confederate armies and those of the United States. These state- ments will serve to give some idea of the disparities existing in other lines. I now ask which has retired from the contest with more true glory, that heroic band of Confederates who so long withstood the tremendous armies and resources of the United States, or that "Grand Army of the Union," which, while being recruited from all the world, was enabled by "continuous hammering" to so exhaust it opponent " by mere attrition" as to compel a surrender? The world has never witnessed so great a political crime as that com- mitted in the destruction of the Confederate Government by armed force. Other nations, in ancient as well as modern times, have fallen under the yoke of the conqueror or usurper, because their own follies, vices or crimes had prepared the way for their subjugation. Many tears have been shed over the fate of unhappy Poland, but we