Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-08-29

]
line on Sunday the entire Confederate
army was assaulting the Union position.
Breckinridge's division, with Helm,
| Adams and Stoval. was turning the
| Union left and had moved far into its
rear, but Helms brigade, striking the
| salient of Baird's position, had been eff
| fectually shattered, its commander
killed, and some of hisregiments almost
annihilated. Gist and Colquitt, CT
Walkers, had fought with the same
! fierceness and the same want of success.
Stewart. in front of Reynolds and Bran
nan, with his three magnificent brig
AIDES of Bate and Clayton and Brown,
had pushed into the very face of the
| Union line, but still found themselves
unable to carry the low works before
them. At the same time Laws division
of Longstreet had rushed upon the front
of Harker, moving across open ground
and under heavy enfilading fire of Frank
Smiths regular battery, and up almost
to the muzzles of the infantry rifles.
In this movement Kershaw supported
| Hood, and thus the Union troops on the
right had the full view and full sX-
perience of the fighting of Long
| streets veterans. Bushrod johnson in
| front of Brannon, Hindman before Sted-
man, with Preston's strong brigades as
reserve, alternately assisting on one
point and then on another of the ridge
all these covered its long slope almost
continuously from noon till dark with
| the lines of assaulting columns. The
| splendor of such fighting as this is en-
HANGED many fold by the fact that from
| the beginning to the end it was unsuc-
cessful fighting. Ordinary soldiers can
be carried forward in battle so long as
success attends their movement but
test of manhood, of soldierly ability. of
| courage and endurance, which it is diff
cult to measure and which can not be
overestimated, comes when, through
! long afternoon, assault after assault,
seemingly in overwhelming numbers,
| has failed, and when the whole line OF
each succeeding advance and retreat is
| thickly strewn with dead and wounded,
and all the terrible wreck of battle. To
say that in the face of such experiences
the Confederate lines were rallied quick
| ly after every repulse and brought for
ward again to new and ever vigorous as
! saults over slopes thus covered with hOr-
rors, is to say all that can be said in
praise of the valor of the officers who di-
rected and the soldiers who executed
these marvellous storming parties.
Turning to the figures of loss in indie
pendent commands, they will be found
to show that this praise of the Confed-
crate fighting is in no sense eXagger-
ated. In truth, language can not exag-
| gerate it.
The loss in Longstreet's wing reached
A per cent, and most of this was incur
red on the second day of the battle, and
the largest part of it in little more than
an hour on Sunday afternoon.
BuShrod Johnson's division lost AZ per
cent. The Tenth Tennessee, In one of
his brigades, hada casualty list of 6S per
cent. Patton Anderson's brigade, of
Hindman's division, lost so per cent,
and most of this was in the afternoon of
Sunday.
Among the regimental losses, that of
the Nineteenth Alabama was 43per cent;
that of the Twenty-second Alabama So
per cent.
Browns brigade of Stewart's corps lost
1873 per cent, Bate of the same division,
4S.7 per cent, and Clayton, the remain
ing brigade, 40. 4 per cent: and Bate in
one afternoon had three horses shot I'M
der him.
In Clayton's brigade the Eighteenth
Alabama lost SO per cent.
Preston's division, in less than one
hour and thirty minutes, on Sunday af-
ternoOn, lost 33 per cent. of those en-
gagged. Gracie's brigade of this division
lost 34.S per cent. in single hour, while
assaulting the position of General Bran
nan on Horseshoe Ridge, and the total
loss of the same brigade in the second
days fight was 81 per cent.
OF Gracie's brigade the First Alabama
Legion lost 20 per cent; the Sixty-third
Tennessee 49.7 per cent
This brigade of Oracle, which suffered
such terrible loss within the space of an
hour, carried into action zoos officers
and men, and in this time lost COS killed
and wounded. The Second Alabama
battalion lost 1863 killed and wounded
out of 239. In the assault on the Ridge,
in which these losses occurred, the col
ors of the Second Alabama were pierced
in eighty-three places. They were af-
terward, by request. presented to Presi-
dent Davis, and the stan dard-bearer,
| Robert w. Hearth, was promoted for
| conspicuous courage.
Gregg's brigade of Bushrod Johnson's
division, while assaulting Snodgrass
Hill, lost nearly 46 per cent; the Tween
ty-ffth Tennessee, of Johnson's brigade,
in Stewards division, lost over so per
cent.
Jackson's brigade of Cheatham's divis-
ion lost 34.S7 per cent; the Fifth
Georgia, one of its regiments, lost $40
per cent. Several of the regiments of
Maney's brigade of this same division
lost over so per cent. This was true of
the two regiments, Sixth and Min tn
Tennessee, under the command of that
brilliant officer, Colonel Geo. C. Porter,
and the same character of fighting was
performed by the First and Twenty
seventh Tennessee, under the command
of that equally brilliant officer, Colonel
Hume r. Field.
In Breckinridge's division the aggre-
| gate of loss was SO per cent Owing to
the loss of its commanding officer, the
| Adams brigade of this division was COM
manded in the latter part of the fight by
Senator Randall Gibson. Its loss was 81
| per cent, and the loss of men SO per
cent. In Breckinridge's division, Helm,
in command of one brigade. was killed;
! Adams, commanding another, severely
wounded, and Graves, the Chief of Ar
tillery, was killed.
The loss in Cleburne's division was 43
per cent The Forty-eighth Tennessee,
| in Folks brigade of this division, lost
80 out of $50. Deshler's brigade lost its
commanding officer and % per cent. of
its men, and d. H. Hills corps of two
divisions, to which these brigades be-
! longed, lost "a per cent of those en-
gagged.
The desperate character of the fight
ing on Baird's front, the left division of
our army on Sunday afternoon. is illus
trated by the fact that three brigades in
succession moved up against the same
point of the work and each in success
| sion was broken and scattered. First
Helm. of Breckinridge's division at