According to the records of General Chamberlain and his staff, 28,231 Confederates were fed and paroled. This, of course, begs the question of what had happened to the 15,000 or so others who had been with Lee when the retreat from Richmond began. Some 4,000 had been taken prisoner, and perhaps 2,000 had died at the Battle of Sayler’s Creek, but another 8,000 or 9,000 had simply disappeared. In their haste to pursue Lee, the Union forces had not swept up stragglers, and it was easy for many Confederates to melt away and make their way home.