Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1863-02-14
rtom N..r.YnrA tIlnb.A.


, now over year since the Natio3al aHi
the Rebel forces under arms have eanb,
. coibbrised riany hundreds Of thousands
the number Of frst class battles-by which
We mean battles wherein ut least ff,v
bhousand are engaged on each side--have
not ,e5ceeded four oil told. These are
Shiloh, Antetam, Fredricksbnrg, and
MurfreesbOro.a There was severe lighting
on the Peninsula, during the memorable
seven days but at no time was there what
could rightly be called q general engage
I ment Az Gai6es Mills the heavie action
of all only $4,000 of 1our forces were en-.
gagged No other example can be found 10
modern history Of such great artiies, with
so few collisions. or minor facts there has
been no lack. They number scores. 1T Is
J of the great effective conflicts alone that
the list is so strangely meager, a,,..., 81. i.
But even onr fpDr large bait les will not
Ibeaf Impartial examination. Not one Of
them is entitled TO rank among our best
fought battles. Ia not one Of them was.
4 the best use niadeLor anything Ike IT,
of the material IN hand We have no
space to goainlo any general exposition
!. to show this, nor is there need There is
a pfetty good test which can easily be ap.
Piled, We refer to the actual desiruc.
ton suffered aud Inflicted, With scarcely
an exception, all the ablest and most tell
| ing battles III history have been the blood
lest Oar sensibiities shrink from this
but il is useless to hide il. 1t is one Of the
| grim conditions of war, f1tW .at p. lle3u
Now let us SEQ how these large battles
compare in desuuctiyeuess wi some Of
our smaller ones in ibis war, and iny the |
war with Myxieo, and with. some of the
large battles in the recent wars in Europe.
] VI course we -cannot-gixe an exact com |
I pgrisoR. There is no httle diversity even
| 10 the account of battles which has gone
into history, in respect TO numbers engaged,
aud the aggegrate Of killed and wounded
and.a greater diversity where the news
paper Of the day is the only authority
| Tue comparison can ouly be an approXima-
| tien at best. Yet ii is correct enough for
general purposes. ''-a',S 10 % 7'''.s
At Shiloh our forco averaged about
53j 000--beihg 10000 on the & st day, and
b6T 00o on the second. Gen Graut, 10 his
official report gives the approximate ndmber
Of Killed aud wounded rs 5 600 which makes
about nine aud a haIf per osnt. .1oia1sA
AZ Antlelam, oar force Was about l00,- i
600, Gen. Mcclellan reported the killed
and wounded as 2453 of the former, and
ii 1922 of the latter. making Is ,6I5, which
is about Thirteen and a. half per cent. .i-.0
o AT Fttdricksburgi atleasl go, ,0e0 crossed
1 thesfiver. sOt these, according to Gen.
1 Burnside's supplementary report, 1852
were killed. and between six. aud seven
thosand wounded making an aggregate, we
fwilIsay, of 5000, which is ten per cent. ,oa
! At Muffreesboro we had about SO 900
men engaged, and according to the tele
| grap'c report of g en- Rosecrans. lost in
Killed and wounded about five thousand.
which is ten per cent a .g isH
How now do these ratios compare with
some OF the sharply contested small battles ?
At Wilson's Creek, under Gen Lyon. of |
our 3,Te0 engaged, we had 223ikilled and |
T2l ~ounded-an aggregate of 944, which |
is over t1reRty fire per cent 57i ri -.
At Williamsburg, out of about / 0 900 en- |
gagged, our ki led and wounded amouated |
to ,S66. which is nearly nineteen per cent
At Fair Oaks out of about Is 900 |
actually engaged, our losses in killed and
wounded were 4,5l7, which is abont t,oents
five per cent. hd e! 3N II
AT Corinth, ont of some l 900 engaged |
our loss in killed and wo1nded was 2,l21, |
which is nearly tgenty per cent aa
How with the battles in Mexico At |
Buena Vista we lost in killed and wounded |
723 out of 1900, or nearly .sirteen per
ceat n. i..a
At Molino del Rey, 1871 out of q, 3,441, or
or nearly t1ceilly three per cent.
At CherubuSco. 1000 out of I 500, or
orer thirteen per cent 50
At ChepuieFec, 863 out Of G 500 or
nearly thirteen per cent
How with the great battles in Europe ?
AT Bautzen, the loss in killed and wounded |
on both sides was about seventeen per cent /:
at Leipsic, at Wagram, and at Austerlitz' |
each about eighteen per cent at Lutzen
about nineteen at Friedland and at Mar.
engo, each about twenty.one at Jena
about twenty six Sat Waterloo about
thirty; at -Aspern (iucludihg ,Essiingy
about thirty.hve; at Eilau and Borodino.
each about qthiry-six. In the Crimea
owing to the peculiar character of the op
creations, a mere siege, there was no first
class battle fought--none in which even /
forty thousand men, on the part of the
Allies, were actually engaged sss. Ytr
In the brief Italian campaign of Iionis
Napoleon, there were two--Magenta aud |
Sollerino in,tbe former Of'whicb, accord.
ing to French accounts, the Allies had 55.-
000 and the Austrians 900 aged
in the latter the Allies bad l45, 900 and
the Austrisns l70, 600 The loss of the
Allies in killed and wounded at Magenta
was abont ten per cent. !; aud at Solfefino,
according TO the French M0RiteHr, 81, 900,
which iS abOut fou rteen per cent Bnt the
lhOaitsUr, as is its WO0t falsifled. e II has
been shown from hospital figures and other
ihdisputaSle data--in1he hespitsIs of Bres.
cia alone. according to official returns,
there were 81 ,304 wounded French and
rdiniaRs--that the real loss of theIAl,
lies on that memorable day, iad killed and
wounded, was $4,000, which would be a 4,
ratio OF over thirty per ceRkais-s 41o1 81
q The contrast between most of che great
battles welhaYe enumerated, Ia former wars.