In August, 1869, Dr. Joseph Jones sent to General Cooper a carefully prepared paper on this subject, asking his opinion as to the accuracy of the data contained therein. General Cooper replied that after having "closely examined" the paper he had "come to the conclusion, from his general recollection," that "it must be regarded as nearly critically correct." Is it credible that the adjutant-general of the army should have given as his opinion that this number--600,000,--was "_nearly critically correct_," if in fact there had been upon the rolls of the Confederate armies twice that number,--1,277,000 men,--as General Adams would have us believe? II.--By adding together the Confederate prisoners in the hands of the United States at the close of the war, 98,000;[5] the soldiers who surrendered in 1865, 174,223; those who were killed or died of wounds, 74,508; died in prison, 26,439; died of disease, 59,277; died from other causes, 40,000; discharged, 57,411; deserters, 83,372; we get a total of 613,230. These figures as to the killed and died of wounds, and of disease, are taken from Fox's monumental work on regimental losses. He "conjectures" that nearly 20,000 must be added to the 74,508 given above, making 94,000; but gives no grounds for this. III.--Again the official report of General S. Cooper, Adjutant General, dated March 1, 1862 (127 W. R. 963), states the aggregate of the Confederate armies, including armed and organized militia, officers and men, as 340,250 General Preston, Superintendent of Conscription, C. S. A., reports from February, 1862, to February, 1865 (W. R., series iv, Vol. iii, p. 1101): Conscriptions (exclusive of Arkansas and Texas) 81,993 Enlistments east of the Mississippi River. 76,206 ------- 498,449 Estimated conscriptions and enlistments west of the river and elsewhere 120,000 ------- Total 618,449 IV.--Now compare with these reports the following statement from the _New York Tribune_ of June 26, 1867: "Among the documents which fell into our hands at the downfall of the Confederacy are the returns, very nearly complete, of the Confederate armies from their organization in the summer of 1861 down to the spring of 1865. These returns have been carefully analyzed, and I am enabled to furnish the returns in every department and for almost every month from these official sources. We judge in all 600,000 different men were in the Confederate ranks during the war." This was accompanied by a detailed tabular statement.