GDG- Book "Retreat From Gettysburg"

[Tom Ryan]

<<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.>>

	I agree with this assessment, and would add that journalists traveling with
the ANV were reporting early on in the invasion that a steady flow of
confiscated goods were passing by in wagons in the other direction heading
south, along with captured blacks who evidently were being sent into or
returned to slavery.

	This might indicate that the army was commandeering wagons from the
countryside to haul the booty being sect back.  Brown talks about every and
any vehicle from the smallest to the largest being taken from the local
populace during the retreat to carry the thousands of wounded as well as
goods.  So this same type of activity likely was going on as the army moved
north.  That should account for at least some of the disparity between the
number of wagons reported to be available to the ANV, and the tremendous
amount of cargo they supposedly were carrying.

Tom Ryan