service then numbered as follows: Infantry, 53,500; cavalry, 9,000; artillery, 4,500. Total effective of all arms, 67,000. Against this let us put the minimum number, as claimed by General Meade, "a little under 100,000 men." If the Count, however, persists in giving General Lee the maximum effective strength with which he commenced the campaign, say 74,000, in equity and fairness he should put the Army of the Potomac at what its commander stated it to be on the 27th day of June, viz.: 105,000 enlisted men, or about 115,000 effective, officers and enlisted men, present for duty. Compare our 67,000 to their 100,000 or 105,000, or compare our 74,000 to their 115,000; but do not compare our maximum 74,000 with their minimum 95,000.
| Yours, truly, |
W. H. Taylor.
|
P. S. In an article contributed to the Weekly Times of Philadelphia, March 10th, General Humphreys, U. S. A., rather confirms my estimate of the strength of the Army of the Potomac at Gettysburg. According to his statement, the return of that army on the 30th June, 1863, showed present for duty, officers and enlisted men, 99,475. He further states that "Stannard's brigade, of five regiments, and Lockwood's brigade, of two regiments, coming from the Department of Washington and the Middle Department, joined the Army of the Potomac on the morning of the 2d of July, and consequently they were not on the return of the 30th June. Two regiments of Stannard's brigade went to the main trains, and three joined the First Corps. His regiments are stated on good authority to have been about five hundred each—much larger than the average of the Army of the Potomac." The same estimate is made by General Humphreys of the strength of Lockwood's two regiments.
If we add to the strength of the Army of the Potomac, as shown by the return of the 30th of June, viz., 99,475, the seven regiments, numbering five hundred each, that joined it subsequently, there results as the strength of that army at Gettysburg 102,975—say 103,000—differing very little indeed from my estimate.—W. H. T.
