[Non-Sequitur]

Oops, I forgot to count the sailors so my figures could be low. But I don't think that they amounted to 20,000, so I suppose that the total was somewhere between the 25,000 I quote and the 45,000 you claim.

[GOPcapitalist]

Oops, I forgot to count the sailors so my figures could be low. But I don't think that they amounted to 20,000, so I suppose that the total was somewhere between the 25,000 I quote and the 45,000 you claim.

The sailors didn't ammount to 20,000, but were nevertheless sizable. I've read that the Red River fleet was the largest river assault fleet assembled in the war by the yankees. It had over 50 ships total including over a dozen ironclads and several gunboats. The rest of the number seems to come from Steele or possibly other commands you may be missing. Take a look at that link I gave you. They give the 45,000 figure and do a rough breakdown of several of the commands.