The National tribune., 1888-12-13

worse than all those catastrophes rolled to-
gether And yet Gettysburg was only
small part of the war as a whole. Tt was
only single chapter in the long history of
one of the armies that were fighting for the
Union. Before that battle was fought, that
same army which bad lost so terribly there,
had lost 1852 killed, wounded and missing
at Ball Run, $4,000 on the Peninsula, 1900
in the series of battles around the second
Manassas, $4,000 at South Mountain and
Antietam, 1855 at fredericksburg, and 16,-
03O at Charlottesville, or 87,315 in all.
Gettysburg swelled this to 1OO,501"
Goodness! how in the world did they
ever get men to march up to such Slaughter"
he gasped.
That is only a part Of the story" we
continued, reIentlessly. "At Gettysburg
the same army marched against the enemy
again. At Mine Run il lost 100 killed and
400 wounded; in the Wilderness it lost {, 597
killed, q, 463 wounded, and 1857 missing,
or total of 37,737. Here in one single en-
gagement it lost more men than England or
France did in some of their great wars. A
few days later it fought another battle at
Spottsylvania, where it lost AIT killed,
1867 wounded, and 2577 missing-26 461
in all. Besides this carnival of death the
losses at North Anna-223 killed, AGO
wounded, and 300 missing-seem small, but
few days later Cold Harbor raised the hor-
rible record again, with loss of ,905 killed,
1850 wounded, and 2,435 missing, or total
of 1881. Then came 1856 in front of
Petersburg. 1856 in trying to get possession
of the Weldon Railroad, $4,000 more In front
of and around Petersburg, $4,000 in the
Shenandoah Valley, and 1900 in the final
operations which ended with the surrender at
AppOmattox. Thus, in the four years
that it struggled with the head and front of
rebellion, the Army of the Potomac lost in
killed, wounded and missing,-a very large
portion of the latter being killed on the field
or dying in prison, more than 258,000 men
or nearly as many as there are men and
women and children in some of the smaller
States"
The thing is incredible" said he. Such
slaughter never was heard of in the history
of the world"
But it occurred, all the same, In the
years of our Lord 1862, 8, 4, 5 on little
stretch of country extending from the Sus-
quehanna to the Appomattox Rivers, and
the figures are in the Adjutant- Generals
Office to show it."
Well, you'll admit that pass for we'll
| informed man, and certainly took an earn
est interest in the war, yet had no idea
that there was such an appalling sacrifice of
| life. Why, if had, never could have con-
scented to a continuance of the war? One
thing is sure, you'll never hear me say a
word against pensions hereafter. why, all
the money in the Treasury wouldn't pay
the men who went through that experience.
1 wouldn't go through one of those battles
if they'd offer me every dollar of the surplus
But it's astonishing that never realized all
this before"
"You are no different from the great mass
of men," we answered him. "You have been
SO busy about your own affairs that you have
had little time to look into the history Of
the war The New York papers that you
read have so much more to say about the
shirks,' dead beats and bounty-jump-
ers than about the real fighting and suffer.
ing done by the faithful men, that it is nj
wonder you get the idea that the war wa:
mainly a revel of scOundrels."