Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-06-27
THE COST IN LIVES.
Interesting Facts Regarding ResImental
Losses in the Late Civil War.

interesting facts.
Regarded from one point of view the
one regiment, in all the Union Armies.
which sustained the greatest loss in
battle during the American Civil War
was the Fifth New Hampshire Infantry.
1t lost 295 men killed or mOrtally
wounded during its four years of serv-
ice. from 1861 to 1865. Second on the
list comes the Eighty-third Pennsyl-
vania, with loss of 282 officers and
men The Seventh Wisconsin Infantry
follows, with q loss of PSI. Forty-fve
regiments of the two thousand COM
posing the entire Union army lost over
two hundred officers and men each.
The heaviest loss in battle of any regi-
mental organization occurred in the
First Maine Heavy Artillery, of Bir-
ney's Division, Second Corps. Dur
ing its term of service it lost twenty
three officers and 400 enlisted men
killed or mortally wounded in battle"
But the First Maine Heavy Artillery
did not take the field until May, 1864,
and its fighting and all its losses oc-
CURED within period of ten months.
Another heavy artillery regiment, the
Eighteenth New York, of Gibbons Di-
vision. Second Corps, sustained the
next heaviest losses. nineteen officers
and 312 men having been killed or died
of wounds. This regiment also saw
all its active service during the last
ten months of the war. 1t must be
borne in mind that the usual strength
of the heavy artillery regiments was
1900 men. as against 1000 for the in
fantry. A cavalry regiment numbered
1900 men with full ranks, while
battery of light artillery had a maxi
mum strength of $50 men and six guns,
and when organized twelve batteries
constituted a regiment. Heavy losses
were sometimes sustained by the light
artillery, as in the case OF the Eleventh
Ohio at Iuka, when sixty-nine men Of
the battery were killed in a rebel
charge upon the guns.
Some readers may be surprised at
the maxima of losses in the hardest
fighting regiments as given by Colonel
Fox. The highest rate reached here
Is 1917 per cent and that was the loss
of the Second Wisconsin. Wadworth's
Division, Second Corps. The lowest
percentage recorded in this list is 15.0.
the Seventeenth Maine and the First
Minnesota both reaching that proper
ton. 1t is, however, in comparing
these losses with those of European
troops that the greatest illumination is
thrown on the character of the fighting
in our war. In proportion to the num-
Der engaged, the greatest loss sustained
by any regiment during the war was
that of the First Minnesota at Gettys-
burg. The regiment was ordered by
Hancock to take the colors OF WilcoX's
Confederate Brigade. to gain time for
reinforcements to be brought up at
a critical moment. The regiment lost
in this fight 262 officers and men. Its
casualties were 229, of whom seventy
five were killed outright, or over
% per cent. of those engaged. This |
enormous slaughter was never again |
equalled, but the percentage of |
killed for many regiments in many |
other battles rose as high as |
twenty. In some engagements the |
casualties, when reckoned upon whole |
divisions, appear at first larger. |
Take, for example, the losses of Han
cocks Division at fredericksburg, in !
charging the stone wall at Marye's |
Heights. Out of 1881 engaged. there |
were 2.029 killed, wounded and miss |
ing. and most Of the missing were |
killed or wounded men. The maxi
mum percentage as based on the total |
of killed, wounded and missing, in
stead of on the killed and mortally |
wounded alone, gives figures which,
though necessarily less exact and trust
worthy, of course raise the ratio.
Colonel Fox gives such a list, the
highest figures in which are reached
in a percentage of $40. while 80 per
cent. is the lowest recorded. Now, the
heaviest loss in the German army dur
ing the Franco-Prussian war occurred
in the Sixteenth Infantry (Third West
phalian) at Mars La Tour. 1t num-
bered 5000 men, and carried 5000 into
action. 1t lost 500 killed and mcrtally
wounded, GIG wounded and 800 miss
ing; total, l. 434, or 49.4 per cent. The
Garde-Schutzen Battalion. 1000 strong.
lost at Metz, August Is. 162 killed and
MORALLY wounded, 294 wounded and 5
missing; total 461, or 46.1 per cent.
As Colonel Fox observes: "A COM
parison of these percentages with those
of the Union regiments in certain bat
ties just cited will give some idea of
the desperate character of the Sighting
during the American Civil War"
The loss in officers exceeded in pro-
portion that of enlisted men. Thus at
Gettysburg the officers lost q per cent.
in killed and wounded, whii2 the loss
of the men was q per cent. At Shiloh
the loss of officers was q per cent.
against II per cent. for the men.
Greater exposure was. of course, the
principal cause of this higher mortal
ity. The Confederate sharpshooters
were always on the lookout for shout
der-straps, and, "evcn in the confusion
of a hot musketry-fre, any soldier, no
matter how poor a marksman. would
turn his rife on any conspicuous man
in the opposing ranks whose appear
ance indicated that he might be an Off
cer," while lin close quarters guns
were not apt to be aimed at privates if
q liantenant WAS in SIGHT near by - |