, and without competent guides or maps showing the roads
accurately.

The manner of estimating numbers in the two armies differs materially.
In the Confederate army often only bayonets are taken into account,
never, I believe, do they estimate more than are handling the guns of
the artillery and armed with muskets (*36) or carbines. Generally the
latter are far enough away to be excluded from the count in any one
field. Officers and details of enlisted men are not included. In the
Northern armies the estimate is most liberal, taking in all connected
with the army and drawing pay.

Estimated in the same manner as ours, Lee had not less than 80,000 men
at the start. His reinforcements were about equal to ours during the
campaign, deducting the discharged men and those sent back. He was on
the defensive, and in a country in which every stream, every road, every
obstacle to the movement of troops and every natural defence was
familiar to him and his army. The citizens were all friendly to him and
his cause, and could and did furnish him with accurate reports of our
every move. Rear guards were not necessary for him, and having always a
railroad at his back, large wagon trains were not required. All
circumstances considered we did not have any advantage in numbers.

General Lee, who had led the Army of Northern Virginia in all these
contests, was a very highly estimated man in the Confederate army and
States, and filled also a very high place in the estimation of the
people and press of the Northern States. His praise was sounded
throughout the entire North after every action he was engaged in: the
number of his forces was always lowered and that of the National forces
exaggerated. He was a large, austere man, and I judge difficult of
approach to his subordinates. To be extolled by the entire press of the
South after every engagement, and by a portion of the press North with
equal vehemence, was calculated to give him the entire confidence of his
troops and to make him feared by his antagonists. It was not an
uncommon thing for my staff-officers to hear from Eastern officers,
"Well, Grant has never met Bobby Lee yet." There were good and true
officers who believe now that the Army of Northern Virginia was superior
to the Army of the Potomac man to man. I do not believe so, except as
the advantages spoken of above made them so. Before the end I believe
the difference was the other way. The Army of Northern V