Gettysburg vs. Wilderness Troop Strengths

Wizard of Cozz

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Aug 20, 2021
I read alot that at Gettysburg Lee's army received casualties that they couldn't afford. While I don't disagree that the Confederates may have taken more casualties then they could afford. What's interesting is that by the battle of the Wilderness, infantry troops strengths in most brigades had returned to strengths similar to what they were at Gettysburg. Now I've also included Pickett's division in the Wilderness totals, and I realize he wasn't there, but it gives you an idea how they had recovered by the Wilderness campaign.

Comparing Gettysburg to Wilderness Infantry strength

First Corps:
Gettysburg: 18,540 (11 BDS)Wilderness: 16,585 (13 BDS)
Hood: 6,960

Law: 1930
Anderson: 1875
Robertson: 1735
Benning: 1420
Field: 6,080

Law: 1,255
Anderson: 1,390
Gregg: 850
Benning: 995
Jenkins: 1,590
McLaws: 6,535

Kershaw: 2180
Semmes: 1335
Wofford: 1400
Barksdale: 1620
Kershaw: 5,170

Kershaw: 1,590
Bryan: 1025
Wofford: 1615
Humphrey’s: 940
Pickett: 5,045

Garnett: 1460
Kemper: 1635
Armistead: 1950
Pickett: 5,335

Barton: 1,210
Kemper: 1,110
Barton: 1,660
Corse: 1,355

Second Corps:

Gettysburg: 18,837 (13 BDS)Wilderness: 17,610 (12 BDS)
Rodes: 7,583

O’Neal: 1688
Doles: 1325
Iverson: 1385
Daniel: 2160
Ramseur: 1025
Rodes; 7,435

Battle: 1810
Doles: 1365
Johnston: 1320
Daniel: 1500
Ramseur: 1440
Early: 5,157

Gordon: 1813
Avery: 1244
Smith: 805
Hays: 1295
Early: 4,690

Gordon: 2270
Pegram: 1520
Hays: 900
Johnson: 6,079

Walker: 1325
Jones: 1520
Steurt: 2120
Williams: 1105
Johnson: 5,485

Walker: 1320
Jones: 1850
Steurt: 1610
Stafford: 705

Third Corps:

Gettysburg: 21,040 (13 BDS)Wilderness: 22,495 (13 BDS)
Anderson: 6,747

Mahone: 1540
Posey: 1320
Perry: 740
Wilcox: 1725
Wright: 1415
Anderson: 7,130

Mahone: 1805
Harris: 1395
Perry: 610
Perrin: 1635:
Wright: 1685
Heth: 7,937

Pettigrew: 2584
Brockenbrough: 1840
Archer: 1200
Davis: 2305
Heth: 7,450

Kirkland: 2150
Walker/Fry: 1650
Davis: 1690
Cooke: 1960
Pender: 6,356

Lane: 1735
Perrin: 1880
Scales: 1405
Thomas: 1325
Wilcox: 7915

Lane: 2350
McGowan: 2230
Scales: 1385
Thomas: 1600


Army Totals

Gettysburg: 58,417
First Corp: 18,540
Second Corps: 18,837
Third Corps: 21,040
Wilderness: 56,690
* Includes Pickett's Div
First Corps: 16,585
Second Corps: 17,610
Third Corps: 22,495
 
Newton's "Lost for the Cause" has a chapter on this. Yes, the ANV was slightly stronger in May 1864 than it was in 1863 at Gettysburg.
 
Newton's "Lost for the Cause" has a chapter on this. Yes, the ANV was slightly stronger in May 1864 than it was in 1863 at Gettysburg.
The issue wasn't gettysburg, the issue was when Grant attacked at the Wilderness, he didn't pull back and give a pause to regroup he kept hitting them. Another interesting factor to consider.

Wilderness
Lee - 65,000 Grant - 120,000

Appomatox Campaign
Lee - 56,000 Grant 114,000

We think that Grant just wore down Lee, but the army sizes stay roughly the same throughout the campaign.
 
I don't think raw numbers reveal the real impact.

The new soldiers were not quite the same as the veterans lost at Gettysburg. Nor were the new commanders
I will agree that it was getting harder to replace commanders more than anything. Though the division commanders going into the Wilderness are as good as any army in 1864 north or south.

I Corps
Field and Kershaw - While John B. Hood was probably one of the best division commanders in the war, Field did admirably commanding the division, and it was one of the largest units that surrendered at the end of the war. I rank Kershaw very highly and think he was probably as good as McLaws
II Corps
Rodes, Johnson, and Early - These 3 were very good, and while Rodes didn't perform great at Gettysburg, he performed very well throughout the Overland Campaign. Johnson and Early were also both very good commanders
III Corps
Anderson, Heth, and Wilcox - Anderson was always solid, Heth gets blamed for his performance at Gettysburg, but by the Petersburg campaign he had really grown into the position. Wilcox, while probably not as good as Pender, always performed up to the task.

The Brigades commanders is where they were starting to run out of good officers. Though even at the Wilderness they had a lot of strong Brigade comanders
I Corps - Bryan, Gregg, Perry were solid, "Tige" Anderson, Benning, Jenkins, Humphrey's, and Wofford were very good.
II Corps - Hays, Pegram, Walker, Steurt, Stafford, Johnston were solid. Daniels, Doles, and Battle were very good. Ramseur and Gordon were two of the best brigade commanders of the war.
III Corps - Harris, Perry, Cooke, Kirkland, Lane, Scales, Thomas, Mahone (Better division commander than brigade commander). Perrin was very good, possible division commander if he hadn't got killed in Overland. Wright and McGowan was also very good.

The biggest issue, is that there wasn't alot of good colonels left behind this last group of solid brigadiers.
 
I read alot that at Gettysburg Lee's army received casualties that they couldn't afford. While I don't disagree that the Confederates may have taken more casualties then they could afford. What's interesting is that by the battle of the Wilderness, infantry troops strengths in most brigades had returned to strengths similar to what they were at Gettysburg. Now I've also included Pickett's division in the Wilderness totals, and I realize he wasn't there, but it gives you an idea how they had recovered by the Wilderness campaign.

Comparing Gettysburg to Wilderness Infantry strength

First Corps:
Gettysburg: 18,540 (11 BDS)Wilderness: 16,585 (13 BDS)
Hood: 6,960

Law: 1930
Anderson: 1875
Robertson: 1735
Benning: 1420
Field: 6,080

Law: 1,255
Anderson: 1,390
Gregg: 850
Benning: 995
Jenkins: 1,590
McLaws: 6,535

Kershaw: 2180
Semmes: 1335
Wofford: 1400
Barksdale: 1620
Kershaw: 5,170

Kershaw: 1,590
Bryan: 1025
Wofford: 1615
Humphrey’s: 940
Pickett: 5,045

Garnett: 1460
Kemper: 1635
Armistead: 1950
Pickett: 5,335

Barton: 1,210
Kemper: 1,110
Barton: 1,660
Corse: 1,355

Second Corps:

Gettysburg: 18,837 (13 BDS)Wilderness: 17,610 (12 BDS)
Rodes: 7,583

O’Neal: 1688
Doles: 1325
Iverson: 1385
Daniel: 2160
Ramseur: 1025
Rodes; 7,435

Battle: 1810
Doles: 1365
Johnston: 1320
Daniel: 1500
Ramseur: 1440
Early: 5,157

Gordon: 1813
Avery: 1244
Smith: 805
Hays: 1295
Early: 4,690

Gordon: 2270
Pegram: 1520
Hays: 900
Johnson: 6,079

Walker: 1325
Jones: 1520
Steurt: 2120
Williams: 1105
Johnson: 5,485

Walker: 1320
Jones: 1850
Steurt: 1610
Stafford: 705

Third Corps:

Gettysburg: 21,040 (13 BDS)Wilderness: 22,495 (13 BDS)
Anderson: 6,747

Mahone: 1540
Posey: 1320
Perry: 740
Wilcox: 1725
Wright: 1415
Anderson: 7,130

Mahone: 1805
Harris: 1395
Perry: 610
Perrin: 1635:
Wright: 1685
Heth: 7,937

Pettigrew: 2584
Brockenbrough: 1840
Archer: 1200
Davis: 2305
Heth: 7,450

Kirkland: 2150
Walker/Fry: 1650
Davis: 1690
Cooke: 1960
Pender: 6,356

Lane: 1735
Perrin: 1880
Scales: 1405
Thomas: 1325
Wilcox: 7915

Lane: 2350
McGowan: 2230
Scales: 1385
Thomas: 1600


Army Totals

Gettysburg: 58,417
First Corp: 18,540
Second Corps: 18,837
Third Corps: 21,040
Wilderness: 56,690
* Includes Pickett's Div
First Corps: 16,585
Second Corps: 17,610
Third Corps: 22,495
I will say, it is true strength wise the AoNV was almost as strong as it was at Gettysburg. But theres.devils in the details.
Notice how several of those brigades were not present at Gettysburg. Jenkins' and Corse's Brigades had not seen major action between December 1862 and May of 1864. In addition, those numbers include a lot more conscripts, filling in for the depleting number of volunteers. Of course, Lee always received the best of reinforcements and replacements to him, but Lee isn't going to replace his losses after this wave of replacements.
 
"The main loss at Gettysburg... it's funny how little difference the loss of men makes - and that's a terrible thing to say but it's really true. These losses are replaced and people go on. What happened at Gettysburg on both sides was they lost some very promising junior generals, brigade commanders, regimental commanders, young West Pointers on their way up like Paddy [O']Rorke and so on, the rest of them,... Lattimore the Confederate artilleryman. Those were losses that could not be made up; you just don't find men like that."

--Shelby Foote, from "Gettysburg(1993) Making Of 6", YouTube, 1:03

(Yes, I know - a novelist commenting on a movie - but I think not too far off the mark.)
 
Davis's Brigade of Heth's division numbers are a bit misleading. It suffered horrendous casualties at Gettysburg. To get back to the 1690 number prior to the Wilderness, it had added two new units from the Western Theater to the brigade...the 26th Mississippi and the 1st Confederate Infantry Battalion, although these two units are not listed in some OoB's.
 
Taking the most complete data for the two time periods (Busey & Martin for Gettysburg and Young for May 1864) the numbers are (excluding army HQ):

30th June 18635th May 1864
1st Corps1615
McLaws (Kershaw)7,1975,180
Pickett5,5005,370
Hood (Field)7,3936,090
Arty2,2431,595
2nd Corps1715
B/39th Va Cav Bn31
1st NC SS Bn100
Johnson6,3935,495
Early5,4364,700
Rodes7,9487,445
Arty1,7781,700
3rd Corps1515
5th Alabama Bn135
Anderson7,1657,140
Heth7,5497,460
Pender (Wilcox)6,6867,925
Arty2,0071,910
Cavalry2020
Hampton3,7212,475
F. Lee3,4943,450
WHF Lee2,2942,905
Imboden2,245Not Present
Horse Arty669470
1st Corps22,34918,250
2nd Corps21,70319,355
3rd Corps23,42224,585
Cavalry Corps12,4439,320
TOTAL79,91771,510
 
III Corps - Harris, Perry, Cooke, Kirkland, Lane, Scales, Thomas, Mahone (Better division commander than brigade commander). Perrin was very good, possible division commander if he hadn't got killed in Overland. Wright and McGowan was also very good.
I would add Colonel John Marshall Stone to that list of III Corps brigade commanders. He was the senior colonel and stood in for General Davis at the Wilderness. I think anyone who has studied the performance of his brigade north of the Orange Plank Road on May 5th, and later on May 6th would agree that his performance helped save the ANV.
 
Taking the most complete data for the two time periods (Busey & Martin for Gettysburg and Young for May 1864) the numbers are (excluding army HQ):

30th June 18635th May 1864
1st Corps1615
McLaws (Kershaw)7,1975,180
Pickett5,5005,370
Hood (Field)7,3936,090
Arty2,2431,595
2nd Corps1715
B/39th Va Cav Bn31
1st NC SS Bn100
Johnson6,3935,495
Early5,4364,700
Rodes7,9487,445
Arty1,7781,700
3rd Corps1515
5th Alabama Bn135
Anderson7,1657,140
Heth7,5497,460
Pender (Wilcox)6,6867,925
Arty2,0071,910
Cavalry2020
Hampton3,7212,475
F. Lee3,4943,450
WHF Lee2,2942,905
Imboden2,245Not Present
Horse Arty669470
1st Corps22,34918,250
2nd Corps21,70319,355
3rd Corps23,42224,585
Cavalry Corps12,4439,320
TOTAL79,91771,510
I tried to show mine as just infantry cause there was a major artillery reorganization and at gettysburg each division had a artillery battalion but at wilderness all corps artillery was combined together and divisions had no individual battalions. So for instance Hoods division shows 7300 men at Gettysburg roughly but 400 of that is artillery. Anywhere from 275-400 men can be shaved off of each division to account for individual artillery battalions. If I'm misreading that on your chart please correct. Thanks
 
I would add Colonel John Marshall Stone to that list of III Corps brigade commanders. He was the senior colonel and stood in for General Davis at the Wilderness. I think anyone who has studied the performance of his brigade north of the Orange Plank Road on May 5th, and later on May 6th would agree that his performance helped save the ANV.
I was just going through them off top of my head, my point was that the ANV still had a very potent officer corps. I'd even argue 1st and 3rd corps kept thos throughout 1864 and 1865 but between spotsylvania and 64 Shenandoah campaign the 2md corps got gutted compared to the other 2.
 
I tried to show mine as just infantry cause there was a major artillery reorganization and at gettysburg each division had a artillery battalion but at wilderness all corps artillery was combined together and divisions had no individual battalions. So for instance Hoods division shows 7300 men at Gettysburg roughly but 400 of that is artillery. Anywhere from 275-400 men can be shaved off of each division to account for individual artillery battalions. If I'm misreading that on your chart please correct. Thanks

Young reported arty as separate, and thus I removed all the divisional arty for 1863 and pooled all the arty into the corps. The divisional numbers are infantry only.
 
I will agree that it was getting harder to replace commanders more than anything. Though the division commanders going into the Wilderness are as good as any army in 1864 north or south.

I Corps
Field and Kershaw - While John B. Hood was probably one of the best division commanders in the war, Field did admirably commanding the division, and it was one of the largest units that surrendered at the end of the war. I rank Kershaw very highly and think he was probably as good as McLaws
II Corps
Rodes, Johnson, and Early - These 3 were very good, and while Rodes didn't perform great at Gettysburg, he performed very well throughout the Overland Campaign. Johnson and Early were also both very good commanders
III Corps
Anderson, Heth, and Wilcox - Anderson was always solid, Heth gets blamed for his performance at Gettysburg, but by the Petersburg campaign he had really grown into the position. Wilcox, while probably not as good as Pender, always performed up to the task.

The Brigades commanders is where they were starting to run out of good officers. Though even at the Wilderness they had a lot of strong Brigade comanders
I Corps - Bryan, Gregg, Perry were solid, "Tige" Anderson, Benning, Jenkins, Humphrey's, and Wofford were very good.
II Corps - Hays, Pegram, Walker, Steurt, Stafford, Johnston were solid. Daniels, Doles, and Battle were very good. Ramseur and Gordon were two of the best brigade commanders of the war.
III Corps - Harris, Perry, Cooke, Kirkland, Lane, Scales, Thomas, Mahone (Better division commander than brigade commander). Perrin was very good, possible division commander if he hadn't got killed in Overland. Wright and McGowan was also very good.

The biggest issue, is that there wasn't alot of good colonels left behind this last group of solid brigadiers.
I'd say there's a bit more complication to this.
Field and Kershaw turned out to be good division commanders, but Field had been out of action for over a year; Kershaw hadn't really seen division command until now. Anderson had performed poorly at Gettysburg, and his division would essentially fight the Wilderness disjuncted and split. Wilcox and Heth were good, but not A tier compared to their other commanders.
As for brigade commanders; that's a lot more complicated. Most of these guys are solid brigade commanders, but some of them have reached rank due to the death of much better officers; Humphreys was good, but he could not pull off what Barksdale did at Gettysburg.
And remember, many of these men will be killed, wounded, or captured in the coming campaign. J. M.. Jones, Stafford, Jenkins are killed, and Longstreet, Gregg, and Perry wounded at the Wilderness; at Spotsylvania, Ed Johnson and Steuart are captured, Perrin and Daniel are killed, McGowan, Walker, Johnston, and Hays wounded; at Cold Harbor, Doles is Killed, Kirkland and Lane are wounded. And this is not to mention the many Colonels and other officer killed, wounded or captured in the campaign; for example, Colonels Witcher and Higginbotham, commanding Jones' brigade after his death, were wounded and killed respectively at Spotsylvania, with Colonel Jesse Williams of the Louisiana Brigade (who had led at Gettysburg) joining Higginbotham. Then you get potentials like Edward Willis and Benjamin Brockman killed, and the ranks of talented officers is slowly but surely shrinking.
 
I think we
I'd say there's a bit more complication to this.
Field and Kershaw turned out to be good division commanders, but Field had been out of action for over a year; Kershaw hadn't really seen division command until now. Anderson had performed poorly at Gettysburg, and his division would essentially fight the Wilderness disjuncted and split. Wilcox and Heth were good, but not A tier compared to their other commanders.
As for brigade commanders; that's a lot more complicated. Most of these guys are solid brigade commanders, but some of them have reached rank due to the death of much better officers; Humphreys was good, but he could not pull off what Barksdale did at Gettysburg.
And remember, many of these men will be killed, wounded, or captured in the coming campaign. J. M.. Jones, Stafford, Jenkins are killed, and Longstreet, Gregg, and Perry wounded at the Wilderness; at Spotsylvania, Ed Johnson and Steuart are captured, Perrin and Daniel are killed, McGowan, Walker, Johnston, and Hays wounded; at Cold Harbor, Doles is Killed, Kirkland and Lane are wounded. And this is not to mention the many Colonels and other officer killed, wounded or captured in the campaign; for example, Colonels Witcher and Higginbotham, commanding Jones' brigade after his death, were wounded and killed respectively at Spotsylvania, with Colonel Jesse Williams of the Louisiana Brigade (who had led at Gettysburg) joining Higginbotham. Then you get potentials like Edward Willis and Benjamin Brockman killed, and the ranks of talented officers is slowly but surely shrinking.
I think we are talking past each other a little bit. Before I get to my main point. I actually think if you go through brigade, division, and corps command the ANV was in a very similar situation to July 1863. While they may not have had the top end talent of Hood and Pender, they also did have as many duds. Gone after gettysburg were O,Neal, Iverson, Brockebrough, and Smith. On top of that Heth and Rodes were much better division commanders in 1864 then 63. My main point was that while they were solid in the overland campaign they couldn't afford the egregious losses entailed in may and June of 64.
 
I'd say there's a bit more complication to this.
Field and Kershaw turned out to be good division commanders, but Field had been out of action for over a year; Kershaw hadn't really seen division command until now. Anderson had performed poorly at Gettysburg, and his division would essentially fight the Wilderness disjuncted and split. Wilcox and Heth were good, but not A tier compared to their other commanders.
As for brigade commanders; that's a lot more complicated. Most of these guys are solid brigade commanders, but some of them have reached rank due to the death of much better officers; Humphreys was good, but he could not pull off what Barksdale did at Gettysburg.
And remember, many of these men will be killed, wounded, or captured in the coming campaign. J. M.. Jones, Stafford, Jenkins are killed, and Longstreet, Gregg, and Perry wounded at the Wilderness; at Spotsylvania, Ed Johnson and Steuart are captured, Perrin and Daniel are killed, McGowan, Walker, Johnston, and Hays wounded; at Cold Harbor, Doles is Killed, Kirkland and Lane are wounded. And this is not to mention the many Colonels and other officer killed, wounded or captured in the campaign; for example, Colonels Witcher and Higginbotham, commanding Jones' brigade after his death, were wounded and killed respectively at Spotsylvania, with Colonel Jesse Williams of the Louisiana Brigade (who had led at Gettysburg) joining Higginbotham. Then you get potentials like Edward Willis and Benjamin Brockman killed, and the ranks of talented officers is slowly but surely shrinking.
That's a pretty good take on it IMO.

I've known Lee's army pre-Wilderness numbers-wise was close to be the same size as what he had pre-Gettysburg, but I have never considered it as a fighting force to be the pre-Gettysburg equal.

One of the interesting number-studies of the war that I've seen very, very little on was the percentage of wounded soldiers that eventually re-joined the ranks to fight again.

The "Harper's Weekly" big book on the Civil War has a brief blurb in the notes where they used a figure of 55% of the wounded rejoined their comrades within 6 weeks of receiving their initial wounds. I'm not sure where they got their number, but it makes sense to me so I'll use it until better information comes about.

We know that between killed and captured/missing that Lee lost about 10,000 who did not rejoin the ranks.

On top of that were at least 12,000 wounded, that if you use the 55% number that 6,600 rejoined the ranks and 5,400 did not.

So combining that those 5,400 that were wounded to a degree that they did not rejoin the army with the 10,000 that were either killed/capture-missing that's roughly 15,000 men, many of whom were considered solid veterans who were not part of Lee's army just prior to start of the Wilderness campaign.

I would have to think the quality of Lee's army simply was not on par with what he had pre-Gettysburg and I think the performance of the army during the Overland campaign was far more uneven than what it had been prior to Gettysburg.

One other opinion, even though I think the quality of the average infantryman in Lee's army was perhaps at its zenith pre-Gettysburg, if someone were to say to me, "You know I think Lee's officer corps was at its peak just before the Battle of Chancellorsville" I wouldn't argue the point.
 
That's a pretty good take on it IMO.

I've known Lee's army pre-Wilderness numbers-wise was close to be the same size as what he had pre-Gettysburg, but I have never considered it as a fighting force to be the pre-Gettysburg equal.

One of the interesting number-studies of the war that I've seen very, very little on was the percentage of wounded soldiers that eventually re-joined the ranks to fight again.

The "Harper's Weekly" big book on the Civil War has a brief blurb in the notes where they used a figure of 55% of the wounded rejoined their comrades within 6 weeks of receiving their initial wounds. I'm not sure where they got their number, but it makes sense to me so I'll use it until better information comes about.

We know that between killed and captured/missing that Lee lost about 10,000 who did not rejoin the ranks.

On top of that were at least 12,000 wounded, that if you use the 55% number that 6,600 rejoined the ranks and 5,400 did not.

So combining that those 5,400 that were wounded to a degree that they did not rejoin the army with the 10,000 that were either killed/capture-missing that's roughly 15,000 men, many of whom were considered solid veterans who were not part of Lee's army just prior to start of the Wilderness campaign.

I would have to think the quality of Lee's army simply was not on par with what he had pre-Gettysburg and I think the performance of the army during the Overland campaign was far more uneven than what it had been prior to Gettysburg.

One other opinion, even though I think the quality of the average infantryman in Lee's army was perhaps at its zenith pre-Gettysburg, if someone were to say to me, "You know I think Lee's officer corps was at its peak just before the Battle of Chancellorsville" I wouldn't argue the point.
Casualty trickleback is a topic I've asked about before and gotten little answers on. 55% trickleback makes sense, given what I've read in the Western theater. For example: Granbury's Brigade went from 1300 men to 750 men at Peachtree Creek and Bald Hill, but for the Franklin-Nashville Campaign, they managed to bring their strength up with returning wounded to 1100 men.
I will agree to the uneven performance of Lee's army in the Overland. 2nd Corps performs exceptionally at the Wilderness, but is decimated at Spotsylvania. Part of this is due to the nature of the Corps commanders involved. Longstreet was a fantastic corps commander (if with personal deficiencies in terms of personnel management), but he's wounded at the Wilderness. His replacement, Anderson, makes a surprisingly swift march to Laurel Hill, but otherwise, he performed modestly. A. P. Hill was routed at the Wilderness, having gone against his subordinate's advice to prepare defenses in the night, and was out of action until Lee reaches the North Anna. Ewell is performed exceptionally well at the Wilderness, where he held against Warren; and he was responsible for giving Gordon the go-ahead to launch his famous flank attack. But then at Spotsylvania, he's a mess, exploding under pressure at the Mule Shoe Breakthrough. Lee's cavalry corps commander, Stuart, is killed at Yellow Tavern, leaving his cavalry without a leader until the end of the campaign.
 
I'd say there's a bit more complication to this.
Field and Kershaw turned out to be good division commanders, but Field had been out of action for over a year; Kershaw hadn't really seen division command until now. Anderson had performed poorly at Gettysburg, and his division would essentially fight the Wilderness disjuncted and split. Wilcox and Heth were good, but not A tier compared to their other commanders.
As for brigade commanders; that's a lot more complicated. Most of these guys are solid brigade commanders, but some of them have reached rank due to the death of much better officers; Humphreys was good, but he could not pull off what Barksdale did at Gettysburg.
And remember, many of these men will be killed, wounded, or captured in the coming campaign. J. M.. Jones, Stafford, Jenkins are killed, and Longstreet, Gregg, and Perry wounded at the Wilderness; at Spotsylvania, Ed Johnson and Steuart are captured, Perrin and Daniel are killed, McGowan, Walker, Johnston, and Hays wounded; at Cold Harbor, Doles is Killed, Kirkland and Lane are wounded. And this is not to mention the many Colonels and other officer killed, wounded or captured in the campaign; for example, Colonels Witcher and Higginbotham, commanding Jones' brigade after his death, were wounded and killed respectively at Spotsylvania, with Colonel Jesse Williams of the Louisiana Brigade (who had led at Gettysburg) joining Higginbotham. Then you get potentials like Edward Willis and Benjamin Brockman killed, and the ranks of talented officers is slowly but surely shrinking.
For example Humphreys' brigade had four Mississippi regiments of which only the 21st Mississippi had its Colonel during the Overland Campaign and that was Humphreys' old regiment.

(During the Overland Campaign) Humphreys' Brigade: BG Benjamin Humphreys
13th Mississippi: Col Kennon McElroy (KIA at Fort Sanders); Ltc Alfred G.W. O'Brien or Maj. George L. Donald
17th Mississippi: Col William D. Holder (WIA at Gettysburg and resigned in late 1863); Col John C. Fiser (WIA at Fort Sanders); Ltc Gwen R. Cherry
18th Mississippi: Col Thomas M. Griffin (WIA at Gettysburg); Maj. George Bruce Gerald or Capt. William H. Lewis
21st Mississippi: Col Daniel N. Moody

By the Surrender at Appomattox, Ltc Gwen R. Cherry was the only officer above the rank of Captain in Kershaw's Division.

Source is The Civil War in the East site.
 
For example Humphreys' brigade had four Mississippi regiments of which only the 21st Mississippi had its Colonel during the Overland Campaign and that was Humphreys' old regiment.

(During the Overland Campaign) Humphreys' Brigade: BG Benjamin Humphreys
13th Mississippi: Col Kennon McElroy (KIA at Fort Sanders); Ltc Alfred G.W. O'Brien or Maj. George L. Donald
17th Mississippi: Col William D. Holder (WIA at Gettysburg and resigned in late 1863); Col John C. Fiser (WIA at Fort Sanders); Ltc Gwen R. Cherry
18th Mississippi: Col Thomas M. Griffin (WIA at Gettysburg); Maj. George Bruce Gerald or Capt. William H. Lewis
21st Mississippi: Col Daniel N. Moody
You remind me of ssomething I wanted to make sure got pointed out:
Keep in mind, Hood's/Field's and McLaws'/Kershaw's divisions also fought a major battle at Chickamauga where 5 of the 9 brigades of those combined divisions were heavily engaged. In addition, they further saw casualties in small battles in the early Chattanooga Campaign and in East Tennessee.
Looking at David Powell's tables for Chickamauga (from the third book in his trilogy), I can compile this brigade strength tabulation:

1st Corps (Hood): 14711 men; 24 guns
Law: 7685

Benning: 1200
Robertson: 1300
Sheffield/Perry: 1457
G. T. Anderson: 1728
Jenkins: 2000
McLaws: 6522

Humphreys: 1226
Kershaw: 1596
Bryan: 1500
Wofford: 2200
E. P. Alexander's Artillery Battalion: 504 men, 24 guns
 
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