Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 04.djvu/50

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Southern Historical Society Papers.

The Confederate Loss at Seven Pines.—Letter from General J. E. Johnston.

[We take pleasure in publishing the following letter from General Johnston, which explains itself, as we are always ready to make explanations or corrections of any thing that we may put into our Papers.]

Richmond, June 22d, 1877.

Rev. J. Wm. Jones, D. D.,
Secretary Southern Historical Society:

Dear Sir: Major-General Longstreet's report of the battle of Seven Pines, as published in your Society's Papers—May and June, 1877—differs materially from his official report made to me, the commander of the Confederate army on that occasion.

The difference is in the interpolation of a "list of killed, wounded, and missing" in the paper you published. No such list was in the official report. General Longstreet's statement of his loss is in the sentence of his report next to the last, viz: "A rough estimate of the loss on this part of the field may be put down at 3,000 killed and wounded." This "estimate" was after he had received the report of his chief surgeon, Dr. J. S. D. Cullen.—See 3d paragraph from the end of the report.

It is not to be supposed that General Longstreet would have written in the same report, and in such juxtaposition, that his loss was about 3,000, and that it was 4,851.

Most respectfully, your obedient servant,

J. E. Johnston.

[It is due to ourselves to say, in reference to the above, that we printed General Longstreet's report from a verbatim copy of the one recorded in the letter book kept at his own headquarters, and that we, of course, had no reason to suspect that it was in any particular different from the original report sent to General Johnston.]