The l>ltn,<l ; i A in// 1. 229
includes the Ninth corps under Burnside, and the reinforcements that joined him on the way in the Wilderness. But all those were under his immediate command when he commenced the movement, and he could have had them all present for duty and in position on May 4th, if he had seen how he could have used them. They are therefore chargeable to him as troops present for action on that day.
" But this is not all. Butler, under his command, had on the lower James 36,950 more (2d, page 427), so, that Grant commenced his move, commanding, in the field, 232,731 men. What had General Lee to oppose to this vast host ? General Early has proved to a moral demonstration in the Southern Historical Papers for July, 1876, that General Lee had on the Rapidan less than 50,000 men. The volume of the ' Rebellion Record ' that we have quoted from contains a letter from General Beauregard to President Davis, giving the number with which he opposed Butler, and they were 14,530 men. So, that 64,530 Confederates were all that successfully opposed this vast host of 232,731 men throughout that long and bloody summer, in which they killed and wounded more men than all of themselves combined."
GENERAL JAMES A. WALKER'S ACCOUNT.
When I was in Richmond at the unveiling of the A. P. Hill statue in May last, while fighting my battles over with old comrades, the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse came up, and the statements con- tained in this letter were made by me, and seemed to be news to the other gentlemen present, and I promised I would write them for publication as soon as I could find time to do so.
After much delay I have written what follows, giving the occur- rences related as they appeared to the restricted vision of an eye- witness. There was doubtless much that occurred very near me that I did not see, but what I did see is indelibly written on my memory.
A little retrospection will not be amiss before speaking of that day's work. It will be remembered that the Army of Northern Vir- ginia, having defeated McDowell, McClellan, Pope, Burnside and Hooker, met its first check at the hands of General Meade, a Vir- ginian, at Gettysburg. The Federal Government then brought General Grant from the West, flushed with victory, to command the largest and best equipped army ever gathered on American soil. Its appointed task was to destroy the army of General Lee and capture
