GDG- Book "Retreat From Gettysburg"

[James Cameron]

<< As I recall, some members of the group raised questions about what was
thought to be  excessively large numbers of livestock (horses, cattle,
sheep, hogs, etc.) and the quantity of flour that Brown cited as part of the
booty shipped South by the ANV during their trek through Maryland and
Pennsylvania (mostly the latter).  Also, there were questions about the
number of wagons that Brown claimed were part of the various trains heading
south during the retreat.  This included something like 17 miles of trains
of mostly wounded that Imboden led to Williamsport, and about 20 miles of
wagons in the train that preceeded the army.  Not to mention other wagons
that accompanied the three corps as they marched.

These were some of the issues that came up.  Other than these questions,
overall the reaction was mostly positive.  The book came out about two years
ago, so it has been awhile since those discussions took place.  >>

I was one of the ones to raise some questions as to the basis for some of 
Brown's figures on livestock and supplies gathered in by the ANV and sent 
back to VA.  For example, Ewell reported, "Near 3,000 head of cattle were 
collected and sent back by my corps, and my chief commissary of subsistence, 
Major [W. J.] Hawks, notified Colonel [R. G.] Cole of the location of 5,000 
barrels of flour along the route traveled by the command."

Brown gives 30,000 as the number of head of cattle brought back to VA, with 
another 12,000 left behind on the retreat, or a total of 42,000 seized.  If 
Ewell's corps collected 3,000 of those, who rounded up the other 39,000?

Other quantities cited by Brown are also striking.  In a prior discussion, I 
provided the following recap of the author's
tabulation of livestock, produce, and other items collected by the ANV in PA 
and send back south.

ANV trains returned from PA:  45 miles of quartermaster and subsistance 
trains filled with impressed stores, plus an additional 10 to 12 miles of 
ambulances and ordnance wagons.  Total nearly 6,000 vehicles and 20,000 to 
30,000 horses and mules in the teams.  Filling 45 miles worth of trains 
implies some very extensive quantities impressed.

More than 20,000 horses and mules seized in PA delivered to VA.

Almost 25,000 sheep taken to VA, plus about 8,000 abandoned on the retreat.
(Total seized 33,000)

Thousands of hogs.  Thousands of tons of hay and grain.  Thousands of 
barrels of flour.  In addition to large quantities of other items.

No argument that this part of PA was a very rich agricultural area. 
However, the sheer quantities involved make me wonder at the manpower and 
transport required to gather, guard, and transport this much goods and 
livestock.

For example, in Douglas Haines' article on Ewell's adance into PA, in the 
issue #33 of Gettysburg Magazine, he stated that on Early's division's march 
to York it brought along 15 empty wagons to carry impressed supplies.  Aside 
from those, the division's transport appears to have been very limited. 
Apart from the division's ambulances, each regiment was limited to one wagon 
for medical items, one ordnance wagon, and one for mess gear.  Ewell's Corps 
made the deepest penetration into PA, and spent the longest time in the 
state.  Assuming the other Corps had a similar quantity of transport 
available, where were all these impressed goods being carried, and who was 
doing all the gathering?

Brown only provides one cite for the livestock quantities listed above, and 
frankly, it doesn't seem overly reliable.  Footnote #12 in his Epilogue 
states, " Private G.E. Nichols, of the Sixty-first Georgia, recalled seeing 
what he was told were "about twenty-six thousand head of cattle and 
twenty-two thousand head of sheep" being herded up the Shenandoah Valley to 
the Luray and Thornton Gaps to eventually rejoin Lee's army.  The army must 
have taken some cattle and sheep with the troops as subsistence.  The 
numbers are unknown, but to feed an army the size of Lee's for several weeks 
would have required at least ten thousand head of cattle and a similar 
number of sheep."

All in all, my personal opinion is that some of the figures Brown gives may 
be overstated, but there's no way to know to what degree, and I'm certainly 
not in any position to dispute them.  But that's a minor quibble, which 
should not detract from the book's value as a long overdue study of the 
retreat phase of the campaign.

Jim Cameron