New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1889-03-29

MORALLY Wo0nuen, zS4 HOuAuNet - ~
total, Act, or 46I per cent as Coionel - .-.th
serves cornnarison OF these percentages with
those Of the Union regiments in certain pat1ieS
i,,st cited win Give some idea Of the desperate
character Of the fighting during the American
Civil War; .,.. .h..
THE loss in officers exceeded in proportion tiae
Of enlisted men. Thus at Gettysburg tne ouosi'
lost 81 Der cent in killed and wounded, VILE .,S
los. Of the men was 81 per cent Az Sniion Iie
Ioss Of officers was 81 per cent againsO PC
cont fer the men. Greater exposure was, Vi
eo,rse ,he prineipaI cause of this higher NOR
,nIitv The Confederate sharpshooters were al
now nm the lookout for shoulder-straps' anu
eyen IN the confusion OF hot musketry are s.y
colder. no matter how poor marksman' "oulu
turn his rife on any conspicuous man ~ CAo "
posing ranks whose appearance lndlcs'eo 'l'ov ~
might be an officer" while IN Close qu"t ~
guns were not apt to be aimed 10 prisoVeo -
lieutenant was in sight near BY compas'1OI
he..sas, tho roortalitv of officers at Gettysburg
ord ,hs wilderness battles confirm this In the
,o,,ner hattie. fought mainly In the cpen' 1ne
of9nars fell thiolyly. In the Wilderness, where
che c,F,oers had the same shelter as the prlVstes
ana were NOT TO be singled ont, the percentage
80 l,ss aiming them fell to the level OF the troops
at large. t,I,od
THE heaviest regimental loss Of officers killed
80, 80 ha,,la WAS that of the eth New-Hamp-
shire at the assault on Fort Wayne, when eieFeh
officers were killed, or mortaliy wounaea- az
Manassas the ED New-Yorlr Infantry lost nineteen
officers killed and wounded out OF twen'S-iOui
present in action, nine being killed on tne gfOunu
Il is significant fact that the pefcen'Ase VI
officers dying by disease is less than 1naS Oh "no
men. The explanation Of this curious IacS
difficult, for, though the officers may hn'e nAu
better facilities for purchasing 1000 anu OeCOet
quarters while in camp" it is equally true that
y IN an active campaign, in bivouac or on the
r,orcb +bey encountered substantially the same
exnosurs and privation, they were exposed to the
game st1rns. and their food was equally scanty'
Tn hattie osa officer was killed for every sixteen
enlisted men; but among the deaths from disease
one ofllssr fell to every seventy-two men, ana IN
the oolored regiments one officer TO every zAo
men. -
The closest parallel between European ana
,or;sor battles occurs IN the statistics Of Water
Ioo and Gettysburg OF these Colonel Fox says
Is Az waterloo the French numbered $4,000 men
,ad oss ouns. the Allies numbered 72,0Oo and
I ss quus. At Gettysburg, the Union Army num-
bered 90 600 men and 800 guns; the Confederates
"a. 900 and $50 guns At Waterloo, Wellinstons
army lost 1915; at Gettysburg, Meades army
lost 23.OO3 The loss OF the French at Wauhioo
has never been officially announced, bub mas Oeeh
estimated at 26,300; the Confederate loss 40
Gettysburg, as officially reported by the Conieo-
crate Surgeon-G General, was 20,44s, to which musS
be added 7,077 wounded and unwounded priS-
oncrs whose names were omitted from his lists
hut annear nm the records at Washington. In
short. the battles OF Waterloo and Gettysburg
we're fought with from 10000 to $4,000 men on
eocb side, and the combatants lost about $4,000
cacb In the battle Of Gravelotte FRANCO
prDssian Warl the Germans lost q total OF 2O,o71
ont Of 100000 troops engaged. This was the
heaviest loss the Germans sustained in any DaVAe:
At Gettysburg Meade lost moro men with nail tne
number engaged. The aggregate percentages OF
loss compare as follows: In tile Frsnco-FrnsSan
War that OF the Germans was 81 per cent; ID
the Crimean War the Allies lost 81 per cenb' IN
the war Of s66 the Austrian loss was 80 per
cent In the American Civil War the Union loss
WAS az per cent, and that Of the Confederates
0 per cent.
The total loss of the Union armies was llO,O7O
killed or MORALLY wounded and 275,l 30 wonnhedi
total ss5, 245, exclusive Of the missing in ac1on
whose number has not yet been officially sta'eu
or the men killed. 67,06s died on the ned ana
43.ol2 Of their wounds. But, after all, the havoc
caused by disease was much greater than that OF
Confeaerate bullets. The deaths by disease num-
bered 90 72o and these do not include the deaths
in Confederate prisons. which reached 24,s66
Their. are many curious and puzzling facts about
these statistics. For instance, Colonel Fox OBJ
serves that the most striking feature Of the
mortuary statistics is that the regiments which in
Cured the greatest loss in battle are the ones
which suffered least from disease While through
ont the whole army the deaths from disease were
double those from bullets, the hard-tghting rcg-
ments seldom lost even like number One-hith
Of tho deaths from disc0se occurred in regiments
that never were In battle Evidently comfort
able quarters good food, and immunity from ex-
posure did not insure health. Again, certain
regiments suffered from disease, unaccountably,
more than others. The Vermont Brigade, while
encampcd in Virginia, in SOL. lost scores Of men
by disease, while the regiments in adjoining camps
were entirely exempt; and yet these Vermonters
exeeled in physique, cleanliness and Intelligence
Some restricted local cause, one would think, must
have operated in this case but there ere many mys-
teries In these records. During the war no less
than A,S3S deaths by drowning occurred. This
seems an unaccountable number but Colonel Fox
points out that after ALL the average is less than
three men TO a regiment The loss was largely oc-
caSioned by bathing and boating, but considerable
losses were incurred in fording rivers and landing
through surf from boats. Then the 18th Pennsyl-
vania lost two officers and ffty-one men while
crossing the Shenandoah in April. 1852. by the
swamping Of q scow.
The losses in the Confederate and Union prisons
offer some strange perplexitIes. Here good and
bad treatment appear to have produced about
the same results. In the Confederate prisons
"A, s66 Union prisoners died OF disease. In the
Northern prisons, where the inmates were fur
nished with good food and quarters, the death
rate was nearly the same; 30,l52 Confederates
died in Northern prisons" Colonel FOx's seventh
chapter which treats Of the muster-out rolls, is
particularly rich in suggestive facts. These mus
ter-out rolla which contain the fullest personal
details concerning the numbers Of every regiment,
have never been published by the States OF New
York, Delaware and Maryland. Those States,
Colonel Fox remarks, have never attached
enough value 10 the patriotic services Of their
troops to publish their muster-out rolls. The
manuscript rolls of the New-York regiments are
on file at Albany, and the historian must make
l..