Last Days of the Army of Northern Virginia. 61
This estimate is substantially that of Swinton, another very careful Northern writer, who states that at this time, " from his left northeast of Richmond to his right beyond Petersburg as far as Hatcher's Run, there were thirty-five miles of breastworks which it behooved Lee to guard, and all the force remaining to him was 37,000 muskets and a small body of broken down horse."
Mr. Stanton, Federal Secretary of War, reported that General Grant had available on the ist of March, 1865, in the armies of Meade, Ord and Sheridan, an available total of all arms of 162,239. General Humphreys argues that this report does not correctly state the "available force present for duty," because it includes not only the " officers and enlisted men of every branch of the service present for duty, but all those on extra or detail duty, as well as in arrest or confinement." He claims that the available strength of the Army of the Potomac on the ist of March, 1865, by this method of return, is increased by 16,000, or an addition of about one-eighth to its real fighting strength. Making this deduction from the total effective of 162,239 reported by the Secretary of War and based on the return from those armies, we would have a total of Grant's effective men, according to General Humphreys' method of computation, of 146,239.* General Humphreys, taking the morning reports of March 31, 1865, of men "present for duty, equipped" (which he states is meant to represent the effective force, or total number of men available for line of battle, and excluding all non-combatants, sick, etc.), gives the effective fighting strength of the Army of the Poto- mac at 69,000 infantry and 6,000 field artillery; that of the Army of the James at 32,000 infantry, 3,000 field artillery and 1,700 cavalry under McKenzie, and Sheridan's enlisted men, exclusive of officers of the cavalry, at 13,000 a total in round numbers of 124,700 men, according to General Humphreys.
Badeau, " Military History of Ulysses S. Grant," Vol. Ill, p. 438, states:
" On the 25th of March, 1865, Lee had still 70,000 effective men in the lines at Richmond and Petersburg, while the armies of the Potomac and the James and Sheridan's cavalry, constituting Grant's immediate command, numbered 111,000 soldiers."
- At this time Sheridan's cavalry had not joined Grant, and the return
probably included troops at Norfolk and Fortress Monroe.
