, 1866-11-20

When the Wnr closed there were In the
field, on the Soth day Of April, 1865, 1,0oo,516
Of s,sl5, ,oes men, subject to draft. This
would make the total fighting force Of the
Free States, betwecn the ages of eighteen
and forty I'VE, and In good physical health,
and not including foreigners not naturalized,
In lie war Department iead to the conciu.
sion, that Notwithstanding the Losses during
the wnr, there were moro men in the loyal
States, subject to the call ofthe Government
for military purposes, at tho close Of the re-
bel helltop @ than ut at tn the beginning; Yst these
eighty thousand four hundred and twenty
men, loyal, true and brave, met their death
on the battlefield or In the hospital. It Is
sad to know. that the army lost nearly as
many from descrtion as from death; la3, ,05
strong, Ahle~bodied men, having enlisted un-
der their countiy's flag and taken their
country's bounty, ignominiously deserted
their colors: =, Psivetea were not allowcd te
half E:illlons Of men that entered the army
o., ,OA3 experienced casualty OF some Kind.
DEsERTioS5.
From thc tables of the War Department,
especially characteristic Of troops from large
cities. In the West, where largo cities and
the foreigners who compote our manutac.
turing population arc rnre, the average ratio
| Of dcscrtious was not quite two.thiras Of
| that or New England. OF every thousand
enlisted men in the manufacturing State of
| Connecticut, one hundred and setenteen de-
| serted; in New Hampshire, one hundred and
twelve; In Massachusetts only sixty-si1. In
the West the ratio sinks to forty five and q
half out of every thousand
In his forthcoming report. General Fry
states that 1t is probable that minute cI-
animation Of the statistics Of tho army wonld
probably reveal the fact that dcsertion fs a
crime Of foreign rather than Of native birth,
and that but a small proportion Of the men
who fotsook their co1ors were Ameri,
cans. It is notorious circumstance
that the great mass Of the professional
bounty jumpers were Europeans. In gene
ral, the manufacturing States, as, for IL.
Island, New York and New jersey 1ank higl
In the column Of dcsertion and this rcsull
is to be attributed not only to the fact thai
such States are dotted with towns and cities
but 10 the secondary TACT that these town!
md cities are crowded with foreigners. II
general, those States which gave the highest
focal bounties are marked By the largest pro
| portion Of desertcrs. The bounty was mean
10 be an inducement to enlistment 1t be
came, in fact, an inducemeut to desertion ant
fraudulent enlistment.
!: The descrtions in the regular army wer
fnr greater than In the volunteer force. I,
the former they averaged over two. huudre'
! and fotty-four out-of every thousand; anon
| the volunteers only sixty-two. The inierenc
| Is Irresistible that the men who enlisted i
! the regular service were far inferior In cla1
acter 70 the troops furnished BY the States
they werc more commonly levied in larg
cities, and embraced larger proportion {
. :orclgnert. The regular service did not 81
cure that noble clabs Of natiye-boru soldie,
which local pride and State patriotism pou]
cd into the volunteer Organization.
CASUALTIES
The military term casualty include
, er1ry shape by which enlisted men or officer
! arc removed from the army rolls. 1t include
. the fact that during the four years Of vi
seven men were executed by the sentence
!, Court-Ma:tial for their crimes The tot
l number Of casualties In the army during u
! whole war amount to Oh, ,0s1. and are di
| frthufed az GdllaHB