7,047
The army of Florida under Major-General Samuel Jones . . . 2,113
The army of Alabama under Lieutenant-General Richard Taylor . 12,723
The Trans-Mississippi army of General E. Kirby Smith . . . 10,167
The Arkansas army of Brigadier-General M. Jeff Thompson . . 5,048

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95,454

These figures are given as the result of actual count made of the
paroles signed, and have been verified by officers both of the
Union Army and of the Confederate Army. They represent the actual
force engaged in the field, and upon the basis of calculation
adopted in the North would indicate a Confederate Army of nearly
three hundred thousand men at the close of the struggle. When the
frequent desertions from the Southern Army are remembered, and
their losses in prisoners and those disabled in the fearful fights
of the months which preceded the surrender of Lee, it will not be
exaggeration to say that the South had at the opening of General
Grant's campaign in Virginia the preceding summer more than five
hundred thousand men borne upon the rolls of its armies. The waste
of the Confederate forces during the sixty days immediately preceding
the final surrender was very great. The knowledge of the situation
had penetrated the ranks, and the men lost spirit and hope. The
result which followed was precisely that which has always happened
with armies so circumstanced. The ranks melted away, and there
were neither resource nor discipline to fill them again.

THE UNION AND CONFEDERATE ARMIES.

It would be but poor compliment to the soldiers of the Union to
withhold just recognition of the brave opponents who met them on
so many hard-fought fields. Nor is there any disposition among
loyal men to stint the praise which is always due to courage.
Never perhaps was an army organized with fighting qualities superior
to those of the army put into the field by the Confederacy. They
fought with an absolute conviction, however erroneous, that their
cause was just; and their arms were nerved by the feeling which
their leaders had instilled deeply into their minds, that they were
contending against an intolerable tyranny and protecting the
sacredness of home. In a war purely defensive, as was that of the
Confederacy, an army such as they raised and maintained can baffle
the efforts of vastly superior numbers. The Confederates fo