GDG- Re: Grant and Lee

[Biggsk at aol.com]

Bob Huddleston writes:

>>>>>In two years, Grant cleared Kentucky, Tennessee and  the northern parts 
of Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia and, in  Lincoln's words, made 
it possible for the Mississippi to run unvexed to the  sea, reopening the river 
to Union military and commercial traffic and cutting  off from the rest of
the Confederacy Arkansas, Texas and Northern  Louisiana.

And Grant forced two Confederate armies to surrender.  (Grant's total of 
three armies surrendering to him stands almost unique in  World history and is 
unique in American  history.)>>>>



The total losses to the Confederates in the West just by surrendered  
garrisons of fixed fortifications is this:
 
Ft. Donelson - 12-15,000 men (the numbers may never be conclusive due to  lax 
record keeping by the Confederates and nearly open lines by the Union - lots  
of men just walked out after surrendering.)
 
New Madrid/Island No. 10/Tiptonville - 5-7000 men (same thing here for CS  
records keeping)
 
Arkansas Post - 4800 men 
 
Vicksburg - 29-30,000 men
 
Port Hudson - 19,000 men
 
Union forces in the West will thus remove from the playing field (for a  
time) nearly 74,000 CS troops - the size equivalent or even larger than Lee's  ANV 
for much of the war.  One historian has proven that while much of the  
Vicksburg garrison did come back to the colors, the desertion rate for the  
Trans-Miss troops of the garrison was huge and that most of them never  did.
 
Greg Biggs