Lee had been assiduous in re-organizing his forces, in
collecting an abundance of supplies, in checking desertions, and in
procuring re-enforcements. And the vigor with which the conscription
was pushed swelled his strength so materially that in three months
Jackson's corps alone shows an increase from a force of twenty-five
thousand up to thirty-three thousand men "for duty." The staff of the
army was created a separate organization. The cavalry had already been
successfully consolidated. And now the artillery was embodied in a
special organization under Gen. Pendleton, and an engineer regiment put
on foot.
The morale of the Army of Northern Virginia could not be finer. The
forced retreat of McClellan from before Richmond; the driving of Pope
from his vaunted positions in its front; the Maryland campaign with its
deliberate withdrawal from an army of twice its strength; finally the
bloody check to Burnside,--had furnished a succession of triumphs which
would lend any troops self-confidence and high courage. But, in
addition to all this, the average of the men of this army were older and
more hardened soldiers than those of the Army of the Potomac.
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