. Men and things I saw in civil war days . puts these absentees at45,000, and McClellan at about 40,000. But it isbelieved that, with the foregoing explanations, theabove figures of 21,335 ^^^ more nearly accurate. This makes his total losses, then, from both battle anddisease, as 50,000, instead of 40,103, as above figuredout; and this it is beUeved cannot be far wrong. In otherwords, General McClellan lost one third of his army onthe Peninsula, and gained nothing whatever; the Army ofthe Potomac returning again to Alexandria in August,whence it moved late in March. Even as, ingloriously, The
. Men and things I saw in civil war days . puts these absentees at45,000, and McClellan at about 40,000. But it isbelieved that, with the foregoing explanations, theabove figures of 21,335 ^^^ more nearly accurate. This makes his total losses, then, from both battle anddisease, as 50,000, instead of 40,103, as above figuredout; and this it is beUeved cannot be far wrong. In otherwords, General McClellan lost one third of his army onthe Peninsula, and gained nothing whatever; the Army ofthe Potomac returning again to Alexandria in August,whence it moved late in March. Even as, ingloriously, The King of France, with fifty thousand men,Marched up the hill, and then marched down again. Well might Robert E. Lee air his sometime Latin, andserenely sing, Partitrinnt monies nascitur ridicidns miisr * His Return^ July lo, gives his aggregate, present and absent, as 157,038, even thenMr. Lincolns estimate of * 160,000 of course was furnished him by the Adjutant-General,U. S. A., and made up from actual Returns in the War Department. 40. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, J862. Ambrose E. Burnside CHAPTER IV Ambrose E. Burnside My next commander was General Burnside. Antietam was fought September i6 and 17, 1862; andLee, dazed but not defeated, fell back into Virginiaagain. Here he was allowed to rest and recuperate,ad libitum, until November i, or thereabouts, beforeMcClellan got ready to pursue him—a delay inexcusa-ble from every point of view. It is true, that LittleMac alleged his army was terribly bad off: shortof horses, short of wagons, short of rations, clothing,shoes, and about everything. But if he whipped Lee atAntietam, the Confederates, beaten and retreating,must certainly have been far worse off; as was indeedthe fact, of course. Lee recrossed the Potomac on the night of September18, without McClellan knowing much about it, if indeedsuspecting it. Nevertheless, September 19, he tele-graphed the general in chief (Halleck) at Washingtonas follows} 1 have the honor to repo
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