Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-10-11

sold; mnole number of officers ard
c1oea ae rs m Our armies who, up to the
eiose Oh the war only. We're E;1led IN
a a mad died of wounds and d;od
Ilom disease and accident br;af
t the e t1 mortality on that side while
5 2ne struggle was going on-was $50
those are figures that we can com.
i,,,t .,, yet simple comparison may
,;no 'lleh IN strorgar light. The en-
W. re popnla:lon OF the great CITY of
cincinnati, as shown by the national
census OF 1850, did not reach that
g''e. Add to it the population Of
,he city Of Oswego, n. Y, as shown
by the same census, and the account is
stu four thousand five hundred abo,.t
VI !ne whole number of soldiers who
persisted on the Union side in the time
of the war! 80 VIZ '-lAAe
Ihls enumeration, of course. takes
no account of the tens of thousands Of
Union veterans who have died. are
dying, since the war ended, of wounds
received or disease contracted in tboir
service. 'eA-
The most destructive day of the
whole war was at Antietam, Sept. IL.
1862, where q 600 men of both hostile
armies were killed and wounded. That
IS equal to the whole population Of the
city OF Petersburg, Va, or of Auburn.
New York.
How many battles actually fought
during the war of the rebellion can the
veterans ennmerate? How many can
the thorough reader who thinks him
self we'll versed in history enumerate /?
He can count off dozen; he NAV
reach double that. When he gets into
the third dozen he will hesitate. I
have had the curiosity to go over the
lists and count up the actual engage
ments between the Union and Con
federate forces, not including mere
skirmishes or affairs of outposts, but
those in which considerable force was
engaged on each side, and in which
there was considerable loss. The re-
suit is astounding. There were actu-
ally not less than two thousand armed
encounters by land, making an average
of ten a week. Some of these battles
dwindle into comparative insignifcance
when named with the great fields of
the war; yet they We're really and
truly battles, the mere naming of
which would easily occupy some COL
umns of this paper.
The number of important engage
ments, where the losses reached up
into the thousands, was sixty.
The number of naval engagements
was sixty-two, which does not include
the very frequent chase and destruc-
ton of bloclade-runners.
No veteran, no person whomsoever,
can read such carefully gathered fig
ures as these without becoming more
than ever impressed with the magni-
tude of the struggle that was ended at
Appomattox. But the reader must re-
member that these statistics relate
only to one side, except as to the
losses at Antietam. The figures on the
Confederate side are not easily attain
able; they would show, of course,
fearful loss and destruction.
And who, it may be asked, can read
such dreadful summary as this with.
out feeling Of thankfulness that the
war is thing Of the ast?-without a
prayer that war, civil war, may never
be known to this country again!
Peace-and no longer from its brazon portals
| The blast OF wars great organ shakes TIN
skies
| But beautiful as songs OF the immortals
The holy melodies Of love arise.
&C McGgO Ledger.