American Civil War Game Club (ACWGC)

You don't even want to know how I collected this info...

Suffice to say it is based on the HPS OOBs at Seven Pines and Antietam.

On May 31, 1862, the ANV had (roughly) 82,412 Infantry in 166 Regiments. At Antietam the ANV had 29,773 men left in 180 regiments. The losses in those three months are really shocking to look at on paper.

Examples:
24th VA 740 on May 31 and just 77 left on Sept. 17
Palmetto Sharpshooters 743 to 33
2nd FL 587 to 99
34th NC 688 to 58
6th AL 1,100 to 158
the list goes on in the same fashion...

It is a credit that the ANV was able to still function at all by September - let alone launch an invasion! Lee's gamble in late 1862 for an offensive to end the war was probably the biggest risk he ever took.

Should he have done so? Or, should he have waited a few months to rest and refit his Army?

Despite the losses at Antietam the above regiments would begin to regain strength by December at Fredericksburg

(Listed from above again)
24th VA 77 at Antietam to 497 at Fredericksburg
Palmetto Sharpshooters 33 to 146
2nd FL 99 to 277
34th NC 58 to 154
6th AL 158 to 546

Just food for thought.

Needless to say, a lot of the missing Confederate army at Antietam consisted of stragglers. I read somewhere that Lee said anyone who didn't have shoes was excused from the invasion of Maryland. Wherever I read that, I also read that many veterans discarded their shoes so they wouldn't have to go. I also read that many southerners believed the war should be in defense of the south, and considered an invasion of US territory immoral.

I think one of the things that isn't stressed much is the supply situation for the ANV. I think it had a great deal of influence on Lee's decisions to invade the North in both 1862 and 1863. Part of the reason that Longstreet wasn't around during Chancellorsville was that the ANV suffered great want during the winter of 1862-1863. For the same reason, a lot of artillery and cavalry were dispersed farther south. I think the invasion of 1863 gained enough supplies so that that dispersal wasn't as necessary during the winter of 1863-64.

_________________
MG Mike Mihalik
Forrest's Cavalry Corps
AoWest/CSA