THE BATTLE OF SOUTH MOUNTAIN, OR BOONSBORO’.

577

hundred men. On our side Colquitt had 1100 men, and lost less than 100,owing to the admirable position in which he had been placed.

And now in regard to the numbers engaged. Longstreet sent to my aid8 brigades,—5 belonging to the division of D. R. Jones, consisting of thebrigades of Drayton, Pickett, Jenkins, 0. T. Anderson, and Kemper; and 3belonging to an extemporized division of N. G. Evans, including the brigadesof Evans, Hood, and Law. On page 886, Part I., Volume XIX. of the “ OfficialRecords,” Jones says that after Toombs joined him from Hagerstown , his 6brigades numbered at Sharpsburg 2430 men; i. e., an average of 405 men toeach brigade. Now all Longstreet’s officers and men know that the rankswere fuller at Sharpsburg than at South Mountain, because there were morestragglers in the forced march from Hagerstown to the battle-field of the14th of September than there were casualties in the battle. \ The aboveaverage would give 810 as the number of men in the two brigades whichconfronted the division of Hatch aided by two brigades from Ricketts. But itis well known that the Virginia brigades were unusually small, because of theheavy draughts upon them for cavalry, artillery, and local service. Betweenpages 894 and 902, Volume XIX., we have the strength at South Mountainof four of the five regiments of Pickett’s brigade given officially,—the19th Regiment, 150 men; 18th Regiment, 120 men; 56tli Regiment, 80 men;8th Regiment, 34 men. The strength of the other regiment, the 28tli, is notgiven; but, assuming that it v'as 96, the average of the other four regiments,we have 480 as the number of men in Pickett’s bi'igade at South Mountain.But the report of the colonel of the 56th shows that he was turned off withhis 80 muskets, and did not go in with his brigade; so that Garnett had inthe battle but 400 of Pickett’s men. Prom Kemper’s brigade we have butone report giving the strength of a regiment, and that comes from ColonelCorse of the 17th Virginia. He says that at Sharpsburg he had 6 officers and49 privates in his regiment. A calculation based upon this report would showthat Kemper’s brigade was smaller than Pickett’s.

On page 907 we have the only report from Jenkins’s brigade which givesany intimation of its strength. There the 1st South Carolina regiment issaid to have 106 men at Sharpsburg. It is possible the five regiments of thisbrigade numbered 530 in that battle. It is true that it was considerablylarger at Sharpsburg than at South Mountain, because the stragglers fromthe Hagerstown march much more than made up for the small loss (32) inthe battle of the 14th. But with due allowance for that gain, the brigademust have been 450 strong at South Mountain. It is evident, then, thatKemper’s brigade fell below 400 a,t South Mountain; otherwise, the brigadeaverage in Jones’s division would have exceeded 406.

Longstreet thinks that he had four thousand men at South Mountain. Hisestimate is too high, according to the records as I find them. Accepting

\ In his official report General Hill, after stat- infantry.” Adding to this number General Hill’sing his force on the morning of the 14th as “ less losses on September 14th at Fox’s and Turner’sthan 5000 men,” says: “My ranks had been Gaps, and we have 3934 as his strength in thediminished by some additional straggling, and the battle of South Mountain, without counting thesemorning of the 17th [Antietam] I had but 3000 additional stragglers.— Editors.