reduced Lee's army by nearly one-quarter.

During the winter, Lee's forces had been distributed as follows:--

The old battle-ground of Dec. 13 was occupied by the First Corps; while
Jackson with his Second Corps held Hamilton's Crossing, and extended his
lines down to Port Royal. Stuart's cavalry division prolonged the left
to Beverly Ford on the upper Rappahannock, and scoured the country as
far as the Pamunkey region. Hampton's brigade of cavalry had been sent
to the rear to recruit, and Fitz Lee's had taken its place at Culpeper,
from which point it extended so as to touch Lee's left flank at Banks's
Ford. The brigade of W. H. F. Lee was on the Confederate right.
Stuart retained command of the entire force, but had his headquarters at
Culpeper.

The supplies of the army were received by the Fredericksburg and
Richmond Railroad from the capital, and from the depots on the Virginia
Central. 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