Richmond, and Generals Porter and Heintzelman had over 30,000 on July 20th, before they left the Peninsula, and though they dwindled to 18,000 in General Pope's estimate, Porter alone had 20,000 men on September 12th, two weeks later.
General Pope states that on August 30th his effective force had dwindled to 50,000. This, if correct, would show great straggling and demoralization. General Pope attributes the diminution to the fatigues and activity of the campaign. General Gordon, in his book, adopts Pope's estimate, and at the same time most unfairly credits General Lee on the 30th August with the whole force he had at the beginning of the campaign, "less the killed, wounded and missing of the day before." If Pope's movements had been exhausting, surely General Lee's ought to have been more so. Jackson's corps especially marched or fought almost constantly for several days and for part of the time depended upon the green cornfields for rations.
But enough. No one will ever know precisely how many of his march-worn 54,000 troops General Lee was able to hurl against what was left of Pope's 75,000 in the last great struggle of the 30th of August. By one of the boldest and most skillful military movements of our times, he broke into fragments this army of Pope, so much larger than his own, while an army equal in number to the Confederates lay near Alexandria and Washington, within one day's forced march of the battlefield.
