State line. | The return of General Johnston’sarmy June 10th is the first on file in the WarDepartment that includes all these reenforce-ments. It shows “ present for duty” :
Cavalry.
Artillery, 187 pieces ....
Officers.
.5049.
.1232.
. 257.
Men.
.47,554
.12,372
.4,414
Or in round numbers..
6538
64,340.71,000
The difference of over 13,000 is accounted forby losses in battle, desertion, and increase inabsent sick. The incomplete return of MedicalDirector Foard shows killed and wounded, May7th to 20th, inclusive, 3384. The return of June10th shows 1551 killed and died since May 20th,indicating fully 6000 wounded. The same re-turn shows 569 deserters. The 1542 prisonerscaptured from Hood and Hardee, shown by in-crease of absent without leave in their corps,account for the remainder, without examining thereturns of Polk’s corps and the cavalry.
General Johnston’s army reached its maximumstrength on the New Hope Church line, where hemust have had 75,000 for battle when the armiesfaced each other May 27th. General Sherman’sarmy there numbered, of all arms, for duty, 93,-600 men, and several brigades of this force wereemployed in guarding trains and watching roadsin all directions, for Sherman’s army had no rear.Odds of less than five to four against him is “thegreat inequality of force” which General Johnstoncomplains compelled him “to employ dismountedcavalry ” in holding this line.
In afoot-note [p. 274] General Johnston says:
“ I have two reports ol the strength of the army be-sides that of April 30tll, already given : 1. Of July 1st,39,740 infantry, 3855 artillery, and 10,484 cavalry,—total,54,085. 2. Of July 10tli, 30,901 infantry, 3755 artillery,and 10,270 cavalry,— total, 50,926.”
The return of July 1st shows “present for duty,”all arms, officers and men, 64,578, instead of54,085. (As in case of the return of April 30th,General Johnston gives only the “ effective total.”)The loss since June 1 0th is accounted for by 1114dead, 711 deserters, 1042 increase in absent with-out leave (prisoners), and 3693 in increase of ab-sent sick and wounded. None of the returns of thisarmy, either under Johnston or Hood, makes anyaccount of the Georgia militia, a division of whichunder G. W. Smith joined the army about June20th near Konesaw, making its available force onthatliiienearly70,000men. [G.W. Smith,p . 334,says the militia were 2000, which would reduceMajor Dawes’s total to about 67,000.— Editors.]
The return of July 10th gives the present for
4- For the strength of Jackson’s cavalry division, booGeneral S. I). Lee’s return May lOtli, and the returnof General Johnston’s army Jane lotli, 1864. For tliostrength of General Freneli’s division, see his return of“ effectives when joined.” For the strength of Quarles’sbrigade, see “Johnston’s Narrative,” p. 675.
]>For Sherman’s strength on the New Hope line, seehis return May 31st, and deduct Blair’s SeventeenthCorps, which did not join the army until June 8th,
duty 60,032, instead of 50,926, the loss sinceJuly 1st being 1377 deserters, 526 dead, tworegiments sent to Savannah , and prisoners andwounded. This with the Georgia militia (increasedto about 9000 [G. W. Smith says 5000.—E Dl 'toes] when the army reached Atlanta ) representstiie force turned over to Hood, July 18th, viz- :
Cavalry.13,318
Artillery, 187 pieces. 4,143
Militia (probably). 5,000
65,032
General Johnston asserts that the only aff® 11worth mentioning on his left at Bosaca was neaithe night of May 14th, when “forty or fiftyskirmishers in front of our extreme left weredriven from the slight elevation they occupied*but no attempt was made to retake it.” In b lSofficial report, made in October, 1864, he s®y®that at 9 o’clock at night of May 14th ho “ learnedthat Lieutenant-General Polk’s troops had lost aposition commanding our bridges.” Commentupon the generalship that would leave a positioncommanding the line of retreat of an army 111charge of forty or fifty skirmishers within g 11 ®'shot of a powerful enemy is unnecessary, f° r 1was not done. The position was held by a line omen. It was carried on the evening of May 14*by a gallant charge of two brigades of the Fifteen*Corps of the Union army. Beenforced by anotherbrigade, they held it against the repeated andesperate efforts of Polk’s men to retake it. ®battle lasted far into tlio night. General John A-Logan, in his official report of it, says that whenat 10 o’clock at night “the last body of the enemyretired broken and disheartened from the fi el< ’
. . . it was evident to tlio meanest compreben
sion among the rebels that f.lio men who doublequicked across to their hills that afternoon h®come to stay.” General Logan also says that Wthe capturo of this position “the railroad bridg®and the town wore held entirely at our mercy.
The Fif teontli Corps lost 628 killed and woundeat Bcsaca. The troops in its front, Loring’s ,lIl jCantey’s divisions and Vaughan’s brigado, aceoBing to their incomplete official reports, lost <>•Much tlio greater part of this loss must have beenou tlio evening of May 1.4th, for thero was 1 ^other lino-of-battlo engagement on this par*the field. ^
General Johnston characterizes tlio battle _May 28th at Dallas as “ a very small alTa' 1 ’,”which tlio Confederates lost about three hundi®men and the Union troops “must have lost I,|O ^ 0than ten times as many.” Tin's was an assault wia ^upon troops of the Fifteenth Corps by two b 11 ^gades of Bate’s Confederate division andstrong’s brigado of Jackson’s cavalry dismount® ’supported by Smith ’s brigade of Bate’s divisiand Ferguson’s and Boss’s brigades of Jacks®*cavalry. Lewis’s Kentucky brigado attackedfront of O.sterhaus’s division without s uC ® (,s .Bullock’s Florida brigado charged along tlio M® 1etta road and was driven back, with iioavy 10 ’by the lire of the 53d Ohio regiment. Arins* r<>