ern Virginia, in Pennsylvania, at about 76,000 present, out of which at least 66,600 were present for duty, and 268 guns.
Federal Army.—The effective strength of the Army of the Potomac, viz: The. number of the men reported as present at the time of the battle, is partly given by Gen. Butterfield, in the testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, the remainder calculated from the average per regiment, and agrees in its total with figures given by General Meade to the same Committee or mentioned in his dispatches. Whenever Federal officers gave what they called their effective strength, the figures represented always all the men present and not only those present for duty. To find the number of these we cannot deduct less than the same 13 per cent. as for the Confederate army. I know positively that the difference was generally larger, sometimes as much as 18 per cent., for if in the Union army the teamsters were not enlisted men, the number of guards, hospital men, escorts of trains, &c., was much larger than in the Southern ranks. Here are the figures derived from Meade's, Butterfield's, and some other statements:
Infantry and divisions artillery present, 87,500; present for duty (13 per cent. less), 76,125. Cavalry present, 12,000; present for duty, 10,440. Reserve artillery, headquarters' escort, signal corps, &c. present, 5,500; present for duty, 4,785. Total present, 105,000; present for duty, 91,250.
The number of regiments of infantry was, according to Dr. Bates's table, 242, which, by a remarkable coincidence, gives an average of 361 men present per regiment, within one man the same average as in Early's division. The Federal regiments were certainly not stronger than the Confederate ones. The reason is, that by the operation of the draft, however limited, the old regiments in the Southern army were at certain times refilled by recruits, while on the Union side, whenever a new call of volunteers was made it was by the creation of new regiments. It is a well known fact that as soon as a regiment left for the army it ceased altogether to recruit itself. The old regiments became, therefore, mere skeletons, and before the time of Grant very few of these were consolidated. The figures given by Meade and Butterfield, do not show, as has been alleged. by Dr. Bates, all the men borne upon the rolls, nor, I think, as Confederate writers have asserted, only the men present for duty on the battlefield, but all the men who at the morning call were not reported absent, whatever may be their occupation at that time. The men known as having fallen off the ranks not being generally reported absent at once to give them a chance to join without losing their pay, the usual stragglers were in fact embraced in that figure.
Reduction by Straggling.—There were stragglers on both sides, but the Confederates, better accustomed to long marches, having left behind the sickly men and being in a country where the stragglers found no safety, had much less than the Federals; there could be none in Stuart's cavalry after the passage of the Potomac, as every man who dropped off had to be reported lost and considered as missing. The straggling was always very large in the Union army; it was especially so in a friendly country, where it was easy for the men to drop out from the ranks and remain for a time behind. I see no reason to doubt General Doubleday's statement that on the 1st of July, the First corps, when it reached Seminary Ridge, after several days of hard marching, was for the time being reduced from 11,350 men present to 8,200 fighting men. Many of the stragglers joined the army before the end of the battle, but it is not a high estimate to reckon at 10,000 the total loss entailed, by straggling, upon different corps of the Army of the Potomac at the arrival of each on the battle-field. Let us reckon only 6,000 stragglers on the Union and 2,500 on the Southern side, and deducting both cavalries which operated outside of the real field of battle, I think we can say that Meade brought about 75,000 blue-bellies against Lee's 54,000 grey-backs, and 300 guns against 268. If we were to take no notice of the stragglers, the figures would be 81,000 against some-
