Of the truth of this statement of the respective forces, proof is here given: "I have always believed," said General Sumner afterward, before the war committee, "that, instead of sending these troops into that action in driblets, had General McClellan authorized me to march _there forty thousand men_ on the left flank of the enemy," etc.
"Hooker formed his corps of _eighteen thousand_ men," etc., says Mr.
Swinton, the able and candid Northern historian of the war.
Jackson's force is shown by the Confederate official reports.

His corps consisted of Ewell's division and "Jackson's old division." General Jones, commanding the latter, reported: "The division at the beginning of the fight numbered not over one thousand six hundred men." Early, commanding Ewell's division,[1] reported the three brigades to number: Lawton's 1,150 Hayes's 550 Walker's 700 2,400 "Old Division," as above 1,600 Jackson's corps 4,000 [Footnote 1: After General Lawton was disabled.] This was the entire force carried by General Jackson into the fight, and these four thousand men, as the reader will perceive, bore the brunt of the first great assault of General McClellan.
Just as the light broadened in the east above the crest of mountains rising in rear of the Federal lines.

General Hooker made his assault.
His aim was plainly to drive the force in his front across the Hagerstown road and back on the Potomac, and in this he seemed about to succeed.

Jackson had placed in front Ewell's division of twenty-four hundred men.

This force received General Hooker's charge, and a furious struggle followed, in which the division was nearly destroyed.