How many people did Re Lee have in the confederate army?

Answer 1

Numbers in the American Civil War are inexact, and precision will never be possible with surviving records. Its estimated that somewhere between 600,000 and 1.2 million men were in the Confederate service. Most can agree that around 900,000 is probably fairly accurate, when speaking of all the men who at some point during the war were in the Confederate Army. 260,000 died, two from disease for every one killed by the enemy. At the end around 125,000 had deserted. However, Lee was only the Commanding General for about the last two months of the war, by which time it was far too late to retrieve the situation. For most of the war Lee commanded one of the field armies of the Confederacy, before taking on the additional role of Commanding General at the very end. Lee's army was the Army of Northern Virginia. The Confederacy had a Departmental system - its territory was divided into Departments, with the senior officer in the Department commanding whatever forces were in the Department. Thus, Lee commanded the Department of Northern Virginia (Virginia north of the James River), and soon started calling his force the Army of Northern Virginia (his predecessor had called it the Army of the Potomac, and the Yankees quickly took over that name and applied it to the field army which was Lee's main opponent throughout the war). Lee took over June 1, 1862, after his predecessor was wounded, and later that month began the Seven Days battles around Richmond, Virginia. Based on monthly returns, at that time Lee probably had around 85,000 men in his command. This was the largest force Lee ever had at any time during the war. At Gettysburg he had around 65,000 (a little better than half what the Yankees had), and at Antietam he had about 35,000-40,000 (about one third the Yankee force opposing him). On average Lee probably had around 60,000 men in his direct command most of the time.

Answer 2

General Robert E. Lee commanded the Army of Northern Virginia during the American Civil War. The exact number of soldiers under his command varied throughout the war, but it is estimated that at its peak, the Confederate army numbered around 75,000 men. However, these numbers fluctuated due to casualties, desertion, and recruitment.