THROUGH THE WILDERNESS.
BY ALEXANDER S. WEBB, BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. A.

UP-HILL WORK.

In '61, '62, and '63, the Army of the Potomac, under McClellan, Hooker, and Meade, had by constant attrition worn down Lee's command until , in the minds of many officers and men who were actively engaged in the front, there was confidence that Lee would not hold out against our army another year.

On April 9th, 1864, General Grant instructed General Meade that Lee's army wouive. Meade had with him, according to his report of April 30th, 95,952 enlisted men, 3486 officers, and 274 guns. Hancock's corps contained 26,676 men; Warren's; 24,125 men; Sedgwick's, 22,584 men(1); while Sheridan controlled 12,525 in the cavalry. To guard all the trains there was a special detail of 1200 men. General Grant had also attached the Ninth Corps (an independent command) to the army operating under his eye. The total force under General Grant, including Burnside, was 4409 officers and 114,360 enlisted men. hor the artillery he had 9945 enlisted men and 285 officers ; in the cavalry, 11,839 enlisted men and 585 officers ; in the provost guards and engineers, 120 officers and 3274 enlisted men. His 118,000 men, properly disposed for battle, would have covered a front of 21 miles, two ranks deep, with one-third of them held in reserve ; while Lee, with his 62,000 men similarly disposed, would cover only 12 miles. Grant had a train which he states in his " Memoirs" would have reached from the Rapidan to Richmond, or sixty-five miles.

(1) These three corps had been increased by the consolidation with them of the First and Third corps (see p. 93). Besides causing great dissatisfaction throughout the army, this consolidation in my opinion, was the indirect cause of much of the confusion in the execution of orders, and in the handling of troops during the battles of the Wilderness.-A. S. W.