Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1865-03-02
Sf(istellaneous.
The Dead of war, and the suf-
feFfng.

fering.
A correspondent OF the Gdzette, writing
from Washington, states upon the authori-
tv of official information collected at the
War Department, that the number of sol
dicrs who have died in the service of the
Government since the war began, is only
about quarter of a million-240, OOO.-
/ This does not, of course, include those who
went home stricken with fatal disease and
died after their term expired. Soldiers
especially such as are bred in cool climates
and serve in warm ones-when returned to
peaceful life, die faster than citizens. Five
years after the war in Mexico, more than
half of those who served in it as privates
and petty officers and returned, were in
their graves. The stttistics from the War
Department, therefore, startling as they
are do not tell the whole story--do not, by
any means, make the grim picture COM
pete.
We may enumerate the dead; but who
can sum up the awful total Of the pain and
suffering /? Death is dreadful when the
victum is surrounded by all that can miti-
gate, and cheer, and relieve; but the deaths
here enumerated in almost every case mex
pressibly painful in themselves, took place
under circumstances calculated to agravate
every pang, and add torture to the sickness
that attends dissolution. Thousands of
| crippled men have dragged out weary days
and nights, abandoned to die of intolerable
thirst upon the te-fed. Thousands
! have died of cruel neglect, knowing that
reasonable care would have raised them to
| life and usefulness thousands Of starvation;
| thousands, feeling themselves neglected by
| the Government, have lost heart, and died
! in the hands of the enemy. Sad as is the
/ - l,,th Ia, g,Il,r - th,.
| thought Of the pangs by which 1t was at
| tended.
This quarter of million does not include
! the manned, who, suffering under every
form Of mutilation, are doomed to hebble
and totter among us for the remainder of
their lives, the objects Of unavailng pity
Man, when wrought up by passion is
brute, and when in1amed by ianaticism, a
! liend, but such is our respect for humanity
| that we can hardly believe there are many
who, if they could behold, at one view, the
vast array Of crippes which this war has
created, would not cry out against 1t, and
demand that it should be prosecuted no fur
ther. 1t does not include the widows and
the orphans, nor their sufferings, griefs and
| privations. or these there is no official
record in the War Department or else
where. Perhaps it is well that there is not.
| The miseries Of Others when brought dis
tlnctly home to ourselves make us uncon-
Portable. We need ignorance in order to
preserve our complacency We must shut
our eyes, or our philanthropy may cvapor-
ate.
There is another mass of suffering which
does not enter into the account and yet it
is, II possible, even in its circumstances worse
than any to which we have alluded. We
ritr tn thnyn ,,,hi,b -, l.,
pride, distinguishes from himself, by cal
ling them brutes. They have no feelings
enlisted in this war, no enmities to wreak,
no consclenccs to nurse and indulge. They
arc simply involuntary implements aud vic
! tins of human passion, and human brutal
! ty. The dreadful total of the torture which
these innocent and helpless creatures have
been made to endure cannot bc described
for it exceeds alike the power Of numbers,
and the capacity Of language. The horse
and the mule may have no soulS-thcy may
not be endowed with man godlike prero.
gatlve-to reason; they cannot love and
pity, and hate rs he can; but they can feel
and the avenue through which paincan enter
has been filed to oycrflowing
There is still another body Of victims whl
should not be overlooked in this connection
We mean those whom we have been taugh,
lovlicSt, finest feelings and dlbroadest chntie.
of large, and devoted class of our fellow.
citizens: an order Of human beings whom
we are nationally paying three millions ot
= dollars day to carry on a process prelimin
AIRY to their education, elevation and socia
introduction to the highest circles of tn,
| land. During the last three months, i
, may be fairly computed that from five hun
/ dred to Il thousand Of these persons hav,
> died per day--dicd ON our hands, under the
supervision of the agents of our charities
from sheer hunger, cold and exposure. ---
. Two hundred thousand Niggers starved tC
death, and Il million more who have entered
5 uron the process Of which starvation il
G the end, constitute one of the most charac-
5 teristic features Of this wars results.
Two hundred and forty thousand soldiers
t dead in IA service which, thus far, has beer
$ productive of no benefit to the country o.
I to mankind, is "A thing easily told, but sa,
to ponder upon. The figures occupy but
5 small space; and the fact slips over tn,
+ especially if it be loyal-aS easily ~
: water over the palate, and leaves as ltd,
, impression. Yet this body Of men woul,
t OF themselves constitute population al
most as great as that Of Cincinnati Witt
, the addition Of the usual number of womei
| and children they would make up the mum
| bers of n city larger than any upon this con
r tnent except New York and Philadelphi
, IA population three or four times as grea
c as that of Rhode Island. Employed i
=, productive labor they would have added i'm
Il menSely to the national wealth and power
= both of which they have spent their live