GDG- Re: 1860 Census

[Biggsk at aol.com]

Margaret writes:

>>>>I believe that there was a McClellan critic within the  Lincoln 
administration who expressed the opinion that: given the 1860 census  figures as to the 
white males within the age ranges for military as a top  figure minus the 
estimated number of soldiers in other Confederate armies and  installations that 
the Pinkerton/McClellan estimates of the size of the Army  of Northern 
Virginia were impossibly large.>>>>
 
Sherman used the same Census for Georgia in his Atlanta Campaign and the  
March to the Sea in terms of where the factories were, railroad capabilities of  
the state, crop capabilities, etc.  Of course by 1864 Southern factories  had 
mostly switched over to war-time production for the Confederate military and  
thus were even more important from Sherman's perspective by then than they had 
 been in 1860.
 
Still - it was a novel use of Census data for planning and executing  
military operations.  That being said, his March to the Sea missed 90 per  cent of 
Georgia's agricultural belt and all of its major factory cities save  Atlanta - 
and most of what Atlanta had was moved out before it fell in early  September, 
1864.  The only major war-factory taken out on the march to  Savannah was the 
pistol factory at Griswoldville.
 
Greg Biggs







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