Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
So, again, you cannot prove that 20,000 Union soldiers deserted the month the EP was issued or because of it specifically, is that about it?
Unionblue
A Little Light Reading, There, for ya, Blue!
CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
The Effects of the Emancipation Proclamation
Northern Soldiers Begin to Desert
It had been predicted that the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation would swell the ranks of the Northern army with fresh recruits. However, the opposite proved to be the result. In a private letter to Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, Lincoln expressed his disappointment with the effects of the edict:
While I hope something from this proclamation, my expectations are not so sanguine as are those of some friends. The time for its effect southward has not come; but northward the effect should be instantaneous. It is six days old and while commendation in newspapers and by distinguished individuals is all that a vain man could wish, the stocks have declined and troops come forward more slowly than ever. This looked squarely in the face is not very satisfactory. We have fewer troops in the field at the end of six days than we had at the beginning — the attrition among the old, outnumbering the addition by the new. The North responds to the proclamation sufficiently in breath; but breath alone kills no rebels. I wish I could write more cheerfully.(1)
Instead of raising the level of morale among the troops, Lincoln found himself faced with an increase of discontent in his armies as a direct result of the Emancipation Proclamation. According to Alexander K. McClure, "[b]latant disloyalty... was heard in many places throughout the North."(2) General Joseph Hooker had said in October of 1862, "Let it be understood that if this is a war for emancipation of the Negro, instead of a war in defense of the Constitution, three quarters of the army would lay down their arms."(3) This is exactly what began to occur when the proclamation was issued. Again the words of Hooker: "At that time, perhaps, a majority of the officers, especially those high in rank, were hostile to the policy of the Government in the conduct of the war. The Emancipation Proclamation had been published a short time before, and a large element of the army had taken sides against it, declaring that they would never have embarked in the war had they anticipated this action of the Government."(4) Likewise, Ida Tarbell stated, "Many and many a man deserted in the winter of 1862-63 because of the Emancipation Proclamation. The soldiers did not believe that the President had the right to issue it and they refused to fight. Lincoln knew, too, that the Copperhead agitation had reached the army, and that hundreds of them were being urged by parents and friends hostile to the Administration to desert."(5)
The Official Records substantiate these statements. General George McClellan wrote that "the States of the North are flooded with deserters and absentees. One corps of this army has 13,000 men present and 15,000 absent."(6) On 23 September 1862, General George Meade reported that over 8,000 men, including 250 officers, had deserted, noting that "this terrible and serious evil seems to pervade the whole body."(7) When General Hooker assumed command of the Army of the Potomac from General Ambrose Burnside, he found the number of deserters to be 2,922 commissioned officers and 81,964 non-commissioned officers and privates.(8) In his report to the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War, Hooker stated, "At the time the army was turned over to me, desertions were at the rate of about two hundred a day. So anxious were parents, wives, brothers and sisters, to relieve their kindred, that they filled the express trains with packages of citizens' clothing to assist them in escaping from service."(9) In all, an estimated 200,000 soldiers deserted from the Northern armies.(10)
8. Henderson: Stonewall Jackson Volume II Page 411
9. ibid (Hooker, quoted by Henderson).
10. Gary Gallagher The Confederate War Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press 1997 Page 431
Those who did not desert often proved to be a hindrance in the field. Writing from his headquarters at Hilton Head, South Carolina, Major-General David Hunter complained of being "saddled with pro-slavery generals in whom I have not the least confidence...."(11)
Enlistments had also fallen to such a low rate following the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation that Lincoln was compelled to resort to conscription in July of 1863 in order to continue the war. In his book, Crimes of the Civil War, Henry Clay Dean wrote:
When drafted, men were driven from home at the point of the bayonet, black and white chained together like felons.... The pitiful cries of children, clinging to their father, whose face they were looking upon for the last time; the plaintive appeal of the poor woman frantically begging the release of her husband, never moved a muscle in the brazen faces of the hardened wretches engaged in this nefarious business....
The conscription bill was the finishing stroke of the bloody crime of usurpation, and wrought an entire change in our institutions. It was the first attempt in our history to work a complete despotism....
The whole military strength subject to draft was duly recorded and examined, either before or after the conscription.... The names of men were cast into the lottery of death, which dealt out its unwelcome tickets to nearly every household. The reigning spirit of fraud forced itself into the Provost Marshal's office, and took entire possession of the draft. Provost Marshals amassed immense fortunes, through agencies of exemption, which contracted to free the citizens from the fatal draft of the conscript wheel. This, like all other villainies of the Departments, was reduced to a clearly-defined system. Tickets intended for political enemies, or military victims, or those who had not been able to buy themselves off, were written and dried with ordinary blotting paper, whilst the tickets intended for political friends were heavily sanded on a full, heavy hand of ink. The sand remaining on the paper, made them readily distinguishable from the other tickets on the slightest touch.... Such was the villainy and revenge that ruled the chances of death in the horrible conscription which forced unwilling men to perpetrate the awful crime of murder against brave men who were defending their homes from conflagration, their beds from violation, and their hearths from the stain of innocent blood.(12)
The unconstitutional and despotic Conscription Act resulted in a surge of discontent among the Northern people, including a massive anti-draft riot in New York city. The details in brief of this horrific event are as follows:
Many citizens in New York woke up on Sunday morning to find their names in Lincoln's army list, for every man was declared a soldier from the moment his name was drawn, and liable to be shot as a deserter if he got out of the way.
The pent-up wrath of the people now broke out. The war had always been unpopular in New York city, and when the first announcement was made, that the people were resisting the draft, the greatest excitement occurred. The abolitionists were terribly frightened. A good many ran away from the city. Others hid themselves. The drafted men first destroyed the enrolling offices, burning them to the ground, and came very near killing Kennedy, the police superintendent.
Like all popular outbreaks of this kind, it ran into every form of riot and outrage. The popular feeling seemed to regard with peculiar hatred the negro, as if he were the cause of the war and all the trouble resulting from it, while in fact it was the abolitionists and not the negro who were responsible.
The rioters burnt down the Negro Orphan Asylum, hung negroes to the lamp posts, and sometimes threw them into the docks. Boys particularly seemed to be engaged in the rioting. The writer of this was all through the city at all times of the day and night, during the continuance of the trouble. On one occasion he saw a crowd, and asked a little boy what it meant. "Oh, it is nothing but a dead ******," was the reply. This shows how callous to human suffering even children may become in times of war and bloodshed.(13)
Such was an example of the true effects of Lincoln's supposedly humanitarian proclamation. Although the lawless actions of these rioters cannot be condoned, the Lincoln Administration nevertheless bore the main burden of guilt for having provided the example to be followed in throwing off all restraint of law and order.
AMERICA'S CAESAR - Durand
So, it seems to me that Jeff Daniels would have either been booed right off Little Round Top, or else thrown down directly into Devils Den, for his schmarmy, Hollywoodized speech!
Abolitionists were hiding about that time, Blue, not trying to convince the world, and especially the REAL yankee army, that the negro was a thing of some importance!
From what I am reading, bro, I expect that DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL would have had a better shot, (even in those days, when sodomy was a felony), than DON'T OWN, DON'T SELL!
[quote=Beowulf;83382]A Little Light Reading, There, for ya, Blue!
CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
The Effects of the Emancipation Proclamation
CHAPTER FOURTEEN of what book? What's the title and who's the author?
(2) General Joseph Hooker had said in October of 1862, "Let it be understood that if this is a war for emancipation of the Negro, instead of a war in defense of the Constitution, three quarters of the army would lay down their arms."
Was Hooker right? Did "three quarters of the army... lay donw their arms?"
(3) This is exactly what began to occur when the proclamation was issued. Again the words of Hooker: "At that time, perhaps, a majority of the officers, especially those high in rank, were hostile to the policy of the Government in the conduct of the war.
"A majority of the officers, especially those high in rank, were hostile to the policy of the Government in the conduct of the war" equates to how many thousands of desertions by Union troops in response to the EP?
The Emancipation Proclamation had been published a short time before, and a large element of the army had taken sides against it, declaring that they would never have embarked in the war had they anticipated this action of the Government."
Again, this equates to desertion because of the EP how?
(4) Likewise, Ida Tarbell stated,
Who is Ida Tarbell?
"Many and many a man deserted in the winter of 1862-63 because of the Emancipation Proclamation. The soldiers did not believe that the President had the right to issue it and they refused to fight. Lincoln knew, too, that the Copperhead agitation had reached the army, and that hundreds of them were being urged by parents and friends hostile to the Administration to desert."
Does Tarbell list figures or is this his opinon? The figures below are about desertion, but which ones can be directly related to the EP?
(5) The Official Records substantiate these statements. General George McClellan wrote that "the States of the North are flooded with deserters and absentees. One corps of this army has 13,000 men present and 15,000 absent."(6) On 23 September 1862, General George Meade reported that over 8,000 men, including 250 officers, had deserted, noting that "this terrible and serious evil seems to pervade the whole body."(7) When General Hooker assumed command of the Army of the Potomac from General Ambrose Burnside, he found the number of deserters to be 2,922 commissioned officers and 81,964 non-commissioned officers and privates.(8) In his report to the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War, Hooker stated, "At the time the army was turned over to me, desertions were at the rate of about two hundred a day. So anxious were parents, wives, brothers and sisters, to relieve their kindred, that they filled the express trains with packages of citizens' clothing to assist them in escaping from service."(9) In all, an estimated 200,000 soldiers deserted from the Northern armies.(10)
All of the above figures given give evidence that 20,000 Union soldiers deserted during the month the EP was issued HOW? These statements concern desertion in general and cannot be affixed to any one specific cause.
8. Henderson: Stonewall Jackson Volume II Page 411
9. ibid (Hooker, quoted by Henderson).
10. Gary Gallagher The Confederate War Cambridge, Mass. Harvard University Press 1997 Page 431
Those who did not desert often proved to be a hindrance in the field. Writing from his headquarters at Hilton Head, South Carolina, Major-General David Hunter complained of being "saddled with pro-slavery generals in whom I have not the least confidence...."(11)
While it may be interesting to know that Gen. Hunter was not happy with pro-slavery generals, again, this equates to what concerning desertions over the EP?
And the following below came from what book? American Ceaser?
Enlistments had also fallen to such a low rate following the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation that Lincoln was compelled to resort to conscription in July of 1863 in order to continue the war. In his book, Crimes of the Civil War, Henry Clay Dean wrote:
When drafted, men were driven from home at the point of the bayonet, black and white chained together like felons.... The pitiful cries of children, clinging to their father, whose face they were looking upon for the last time; the plaintive appeal of the poor woman frantically begging the release of her husband, never moved a muscle in the brazen faces of the hardened wretches engaged in this nefarious business....
The conscription bill was the finishing stroke of the bloody crime of usurpation, and wrought an entire change in our institutions. It was the first attempt in our history to work a complete despotism....
The whole military strength subject to draft was duly recorded and examined, either before or after the conscription.... The names of men were cast into the lottery of death, which dealt out its unwelcome tickets to nearly every household. The reigning spirit of fraud forced itself into the Provost Marshal's office, and took entire possession of the draft. Provost Marshals amassed immense fortunes, through agencies of exemption, which contracted to free the citizens from the fatal draft of the conscript wheel. This, like all other villainies of the Departments, was reduced to a clearly-defined system. Tickets intended for political enemies, or military victims, or those who had not been able to buy themselves off, were written and dried with ordinary blotting paper, whilst the tickets intended for political friends were heavily sanded on a full, heavy hand of ink. The sand remaining on the paper, made them readily distinguishable from the other tickets on the slightest touch.... Such was the villainy and revenge that ruled the chances of death in the horrible conscription which forced unwilling men to perpetrate the awful crime of murder against brave men who were defending their homes from conflagration, their beds from violation, and their hearths from the stain of innocent blood.(12)
The unconstitutional and despotic Conscription Act resulted in a surge of discontent among the Northern people, including a massive anti-draft riot in New York city. The details in brief of this horrific event are as follows:
Many citizens in New York woke up on Sunday morning to find their names in Lincoln's army list, for every man was declared a soldier from the moment his name was drawn, and liable to be shot as a deserter if he got out of the way.
The pent-up wrath of the people now broke out. The war had always been unpopular in New York city, and when the first announcement was made, that the people were resisting the draft, the greatest excitement occurred. The abolitionists were terribly frightened. A good many ran away from the city. Others hid themselves. The drafted men first destroyed the enrolling offices, burning them to the ground, and came very near killing Kennedy, the police superintendent.
Like all popular outbreaks of this kind, it ran into every form of riot and outrage. The popular feeling seemed to regard with peculiar hatred the negro, as if he were the cause of the war and all the trouble resulting from it, while in fact it was the abolitionists and not the negro who were responsible.
The rioters burnt down the Negro Orphan Asylum, hung negroes to the lamp posts, and sometimes threw them into the docks. Boys particularly seemed to be engaged in the rioting. The writer of this was all through the city at all times of the day and night, during the continuance of the trouble. On one occasion he saw a crowd, and asked a little boy what it meant. "Oh, it is nothing but a dead ******," was the reply. This shows how callous to human suffering even children may become in times of war and bloodshed.(13)
Such was an example of the true effects of Lincoln's supposedly humanitarian proclamation. Although the lawless actions of these rioters cannot be condoned, the Lincoln Administration nevertheless bore the main burden of guilt for having provided the example to be followed in throwing off all restraint of law and order.
AMERICA'S CAESAR - Durand
Beowulf, I see a lot of words and few sources from the excerpts of Durand's AMERICA'S CAESAR, frankly a book I would only use to 'source' my fireplace.
DO YOU HAVE any official sources, any reports or OR's that directly link desertions in the tens of thousands of Union soldiers over the issuing of the Emancipation Proclamation? I see opinions by biased authors, out-of-context quotes concerning desertion figures, BUT NO DIRECT LINKS to the EP and the number of desertions.
So, it seems to me that Jeff Daniels would have either been booed right off Little Round Top, or else thrown down directly into Devils Den, for his schmarmy, Hollywoodized speech!
Jeff Daniels and a hollywood movie have as little to do with the EP and Union desertions as the fantasy you have tried to construct with this tissue of unrelated 'facts.' Gettysburg was a work of fiction, just like this post.
Abolitionists were hiding about that time, Blue, not trying to convince the world, and especially the REAL yankee army, that the negro was a thing of some importance!
Your opinion, nothing more.
From what I am reading, bro, I expect that DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL would have had a better shot, (even in those days, when sodomy was a felony), than DON'T OWN, DON'T SELL!
Again, snappy comebacks with no meaning, but I am not surprised, given the worthless context of this entire post. You should live by the quote, DON'T KNOW, CAN'T ANSWER.
Beowulf,
Partisan sources, out-of-context figures and unproven quotes and opinions.
Not one shred of evidence that could lead to actual figures of Union soldiers who deserted over the Emancipation Proclamation.
Again, all we are left with are ASSUMPTIONS, assumptions that must be accepted as truth if we are to hammer home the idea that the war was NOT about slavery.
Were there soldiers in the Union army who were upset with the EP? Upset over the idea of negro equality? Upset that it was now a war aim of the Union to destroy slavery and free the slaves? YES, of course there were.
Again, from the book, What This Cruel War Was Over, by Chandra Manning:
"Three weeks before Lincoln issued the preliminary proclamation, a German immigrant who fought with the Twelvefth Missouri argued impatiently that emancipation was "the only proper policy," and without it, "the war will not take a successful turn." Once news of the preliminary proclamation reached the camp of the Third Kansas Cavalry, Joseph Trego announced, "we are rejoiced to learn that Abraham has, at last begun at the bottom of the difficulty to solve it." Gratified though Elijah Penny was by news of emancipation, he could not help but grumble, "if the President's proclamation had been proclaimed one year sooner than it was I think the war would have been just so much nearer the end."
However much soldiers may have anticipated the destruction of slavery, the final Emancipation Proclamation still amounted to big news. An Iowa regiment gathered for a reading of the document and greeted it with "3 times 3 hearty cheer[s] from the whole regiment, hurrah for the proclamation and old Abe." In Louisians, the Eleventh Illinois listened to a speech reminding soldiers that "the Negroes was free, as free as the wind that blows, and that they had to be treated as men & women." After the speech, Sgt. William Parkinson admitted that approval of the proclamation was not a "unanimous thing," but he added overall, "I never in all my days saw such inthusiasm." A "large majoriy" of the men greeted the proclamation and the speech with "shouts & Hurrahs."
When Parkinson remarked that response to the proclamation was "not a unanimous thing," he rightly noted that soldeirs remained individuals with their own, sometimes conflicting, opinions. Yet despite a wide range of outlooks, a predominant view clearly emerged, and it is best summed up by a soldier who explained, "slavery is the primary cause, or the root of the matter"; therefore, the Emancipation Proclamation made good sense, because "to destroy the tree root & branch is the surest way to brake this rebellion." Certain that "the ware never will come to a close while the negros is left where they are," Pvt. Jasper Barney set out to persuade his socially elite brother-in-law (an officer and Barney's superior in rank), who worried that emancipation would upset the social order. "Even if we could suppress the rebellion and leave the main root where it was before," Barney argued, "it wouldent be long before they would try the same game as before. But if we take away the main root of evil and confiscate their property they will have nothing to fight fore hereafter." To the soldiers who had been claiming that emancipation was the only way to end the war once and for all, the proclamation seemed like plain old common sense."
I'll take direct quotes from the soldiers of the time from themselves.
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
At the moment, I am trying to find out whether or not yankee general James B. McPherson, him of the peculiar glint in his eye (see photo) and James M. McPherson, him of a similar glint, are related. Do you have any data on this, so I can get back to my other stumblings?
Is he related, or (as they say up North... 'or no?').
Beowulf
Modern day historian James M. McPherson has repeatedly declared in interviews that he knows of no relationship to General James Birdseye McPherson of the Civil War.
There is no more basis for the query than there is for wondering if you are related to the Beowulf of the Grendel tale.
Tim
__________________ "Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this Union, by maintaining that each state is separately and individually independent, as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses."
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, 1740-1824, Revolutionary War soldier, one of the authors of the US Constitution in 1787, speaking at the South Carolina Ratifying Convention in 1788.
You still haven't factored in the increase in the aggregate. Is there a reason in the above post that you didn't post the numbers of the present for duty?
ole
There is usually a reason for the data that Battalion leaves out, IMHO.
For those unfamiliar with the makeup of numbers in reports such as these, here is an example (based on "Exhibit of the forces of the United States on the 1st of May, 1864." in the Official Records):
The Present number breaks down this way:
-- Present, available for duty. 662,345
-- Present, sick in field hospitals or unfit for duty: 41,266
The Absent number breaks down this way:
-- Absent on detached service: 109,348
-- Absent with leave, including POWs: 66,290
-- Absent, in general hospitals and on sick leave: 75,978
-- Absent without authority: 15,483
As you can see, this number (compiled from the reports of all the subordinate Departments of the Army at the HQ in Washington), shows a tiny percentage of those Absent who would be considered "deserters" (only the 15,483, or 5.7967%) It is only 1.595% of the Total force of 970,710.
There are reasons why the deserters number should be low at this time. It is before the 1864 campaign starts. A few days after this, Grant had collided with Lee in The Wilderness and Sherman was fighting Joe Johnston at Resaca. After a Winter of recruiting and time to track down the missing, to straighten out the paperwork, these numbers should be low. We should also expect them to be quite a bit higher that Summer, after Grant has hammered his way across Virginia to Petersburg and Sherman has fought and maneuvered through north Georgia to the outskirts of Atlanta.
If Battalion is looking at reports for the periods he posts, he surely has similar breakdowns in his sight. If he is not disclosing the actual number of deserter-equivalents, he has a reason for it. I presume that it is because he wishes to obscure the detail in order to make it seem we must assume large numbers of deserters. That is not a forthright way to present things.
Tim
__________________ "Let us, then, consider all attempts to weaken this Union, by maintaining that each state is separately and individually independent, as a species of political heresy, which can never benefit us, but may bring on us the most serious distresses."
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina, 1740-1824, Revolutionary War soldier, one of the authors of the US Constitution in 1787, speaking at the South Carolina Ratifying Convention in 1788.
Modern day historian James M. McPherson has repeatedly declared in interviews that he knows of no relationship to General James Birdseye McPherson of the Civil War.
There is no more basis for the query than there is for wondering if you are related to the Beowulf of the Grendel tale.
Tim
Thanks!
Other than their tribal connections to this particular strain of Clan Mac Pherson, (which, obviously, have sided with the Bloody Saxons on this side of the pond!) there is no connection...
Hmmmm.
Still... I don't think he'd kick him out of the family tree,
even for not surviving the war!
Although, I could be wrong about that. Winning is everything in some cultures!
Beowulf
(And have you ever seen Grendel's mother on a good day?!)
As you can see, this number (compiled from the reports of all the subordinate Departments of the Army at the HQ in Washington), shows a tiny percentage of those Absent who would be considered "deserters" (only the 15,483, or 5.7967%) It is only 1.595% of the Total force of 970,710.
Tim
Is everyone missing without proper records listed under "deserters." For instance, if a man fell ill by the side of the road on a march and was taken in by a nearby house, they would be listed as a deserter, would they not? Are all missing and unaccounted for also listed as "absent"? For instance, those missing after a battle but no one knows if they were killed or not (no body), are they listed as absent?
__________________ "There must be more historians of the Civil War than there were generals figthing in it... Of the two groups, the historians are the more belligerent." David Donald, Lincoln Reconsidered (1961)
First off, we both can find quotes and readings which tend to agree with our 'sides' in this matter. Battalion has the numbers, and you guys can chew each others ears off deciding what caused them.
But, this German is only interested in winning and nothing more. The Union Army would have cemented the negro into slavery permanently if it had meant victory!
Lincoln his-own-sorry-self said so!
But most of these guys were working stiffs, and didn't want negroes coming North into their worlds, and intermingling with their families, and taking their slave labor factory jobs, and becoming burdens to their societies. And can you blame them?
Joseph Trego is full of it! A year sooner and the North would have shot Lincoln (before they actually did!)
And yes, thieving does always interest the yankee element, and misappropriating, and 'confiscating'...
this does nothing for your premise that Sir Yankee
was ever interested in anything but doing the Southern civilian a disservice and then getting back home again!
Oh, and by the way... what about the poor old injuns out West? I don't ever see a successful Confederate government doing to those people what the yankees did to them, under 'kind and share a cracker with you' Sherman!
Had the majority of yanks been like you, Blue, we'd probably have never had a fight!
But, obviously, 'they wasn't!'
So, yeah, I can see 20,000 leaving, and I can see the Feds doctoring the numbers for 'different reasons' to throw off the full impact that had on them...
(Personally? I'd have left under the EP and screamed so, even though what I really want is to get out of these other people's homeland and get back to planting a crop! So, yeah, any excuse to tell Lincoln to shove it!)...
This argument is becoming pointless. But we do know there were a large number of them (no, I can't go back and count them all, nor even rely upon a period count of them all...) who disagreed with the EP, to the point of leaving the yankees in the field... and many more who disagreed with many other things Lincoln took it on himself to do!
There is usually a reason for the data that Battalion leaves out, IMHO.
For those unfamiliar with the makeup of numbers in reports such as these, here is an example (based on "Exhibit of the forces of the United States on the 1st of May, 1864." in the Official Records):
The Present number breaks down this way:
-- Present, available for duty. 662,345
-- Present, sick in field hospitals or unfit for duty: 41,266
The Absent number breaks down this way:
-- Absent on detached service: 109,348
-- Absent with leave, including POWs: 66,290
-- Absent, in general hospitals and on sick leave: 75,978
-- Absent without authority: 15,483
As you can see, this number (compiled from the reports of all the subordinate Departments of the Army at the HQ in Washington), shows a tiny percentage of those Absent who would be considered "deserters" (only the 15,483, or 5.7967%) It is only 1.595% of the Total force of 970,710.
There are reasons why the deserters number should be low at this time. It is before the 1864 campaign starts. A few days after this, Grant had collided with Lee in The Wilderness and Sherman was fighting Joe Johnston at Resaca. After a Winter of recruiting and time to track down the missing, to straighten out the paperwork, these numbers should be low. We should also expect them to be quite a bit higher that Summer, after Grant has hammered his way across Virginia to Petersburg and Sherman has fought and maneuvered through north Georgia to the outskirts of Atlanta.
If Battalion is looking at reports for the periods he posts, he surely has similar breakdowns in his sight. If he is not disclosing the actual number of deserter-equivalents, he has a reason for it. I presume that it is because he wishes to obscure the detail in order to make it seem we must assume large numbers of deserters. That is not a forthright way to present things.
Tim
I have worked in state jobs and know of people connected to federal jobs who stroke the numbers all the time to show different things in various ways... For example, the media and the war dead right now. There is another line of thought that says more soldiers died under Clinton's term than have died to date, at this very moment, under Bush 43.
You just didn't hear about them, ever day every day every day!
The Liberal Media wasn't 'about' all that under Clinton. In short, there is no way of knowing anything except what they tell us... and how many yankee pencil pushers are going to make it any worse than it was, or even as bad as it was, if it reflects poorly on the MESSENGER!
BUT...
IF we take what is written at face value, asking no questions about who and where these numbers came from,
then you have a point.
Of course, with no computers and no SSN numbers and
no telephones, such accuracy is indeed commendable, if not downright stunning!
Bottom Line: This wonderous EP was not seen as such by the preponderance of the yankee invasion forces... and the treatment of the negro, as an art form, in both of our countries over the last 150 years, is conclusive to that end!
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