III.—Again the official report of General S. Cooper, Adjutant General, dated March 1, 1862 (127 W. R. 963), states the aggregate of the Confederate armies, including armed and organized militia, officers and men, as

340,250
General Preston, Superintendent of Conscription, C. S. A., reports from February, 1862, to February, 1865 (W. R., series iv, Vol. iii, p. 1101):
Conscriptions (exclusive of Arkansas and Texas)81,993
Enlistments east of the Mississippi River.76,206
498,449
Estimated conscriptions and enlistments west of the river and elsewhere 120,000
Total618,449

IV.—Now compare with these reports the following statement from the New York Tribune of June 26, 1867:

"Among the documents which fell into our hands at the downfall of the Confederacy are the returns, very nearly complete, of the Confederate armies from their organization in the summer of 1861 down to the spring of 1865. These returns have been carefully analyzed, and I am enabled to furnish the returns in every department and for almost every month from these official sources. We judge in all 600,000 different men were in the Confederate ranks during the war."

This was accompanied by a detailed tabular statement.

Is not this good secondary evidence as to the numbers of men in the Confederate Army, especially when we remember the statement of General Cooper, late adjutant-general of the Confederate armies? He says:

"The files of this office which could best afford this information [as to numbers] were carefully boxed up and taken on our retreat from Richmond to Charlotte, North Carolina, where they were, unfortunately, captured and, as I learn, are now in Washington." These files, be it remembered, have never been examined by any Southern writer.

Observe also that the "American Encyclopædia" (1875), of which Mr. Charles A. Dana, late Assistant Secretary of War, U. S., was editor, quotes General Cooper's statement as to numbers, without comment, thus tacitly admitting the truth of that statement. Can it be justly said, in the light of these facts, that the estimate usually given by Southern writers is based on assertion only?[6]

V.—There is a fifth line upon which we are led to a very similar conclusion.

In the work of Lieutenant Colonel Wm. F. Fox, "Regimental Losses in the Civil War," we find the strength of the Confederate armies furnished by the seceded States and by the border States as well, reckoned as follows: 529 regiments and 85 battalions of infantry; 127 regiments and 47 battalions of cavalry; 8 regiments and 1 battalion of partisan rangers; 5 regiments and 6 battalions of heavy artillery, and 261 batteries of light artillery—in all equivalent to 764 regiments of 10 companies. In making this statement Colonel Fox assures his readers that "no statistics are given that are not warranted by the official records."