The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-08-10

\LIZ%<S@ IutIl. bUG III Wde
IA ~ the fate of some
<|H ~ATV commands TO be
~NHA placed in extreme
ly trying positions and TO risk more than
professional pride demanded. The records
of a score or more of famous divisions and
brigades and several hundred noted regi-
ments ara brought out il a striking man.
ner in Col. William Fox's story of "Regi-
mental Losses in the Civil War" The in.
terest in this work is not maintained By
skillful word painting, but by plain figures
skillfully arranged to present at once the
sublimity and the pathos of human bray
cry.
For instance, after giving list of over
seventy Union regiments that lost in killed
and wounded from 80 to 80 per cent. of the
number engaged, the losses on certain re-
markable occasions in noted foreign WARS
are cited. The Six Hundred who rode into
the Valley Of Death at Balaklava lost SO. Z
per cent. The Third Wesphalian regiment
at Mais-la-ToUr, in the F=anco-Prussiau
war, lost over q thousand killed and wound
ed, but it carried 1900 men into action and
its total loss, including prisoners, was 40 4
per cent. In the same war the Garde Schut-
zen battalion, at Metz, lost 461 out of 1000,
or 46. per cent.
The Balaklava charge was blunder and
disaster and accomplished nothing, but
of course it was daring ride. When we
learn, as we do from Col Fox's work, that
the great risks taken in the civil war and
followed by appalling losses were success
full strokes and that every life so lost told
in the result, the figures acquire a power
- ,A T,l, l..
First Minnesota at Gettysburg, where its
total loss was 81 per cent. and its loss in
killed rs out Of 262 men engaged; this regi-
ment may claim to have performed the
highest service on that field. 1t saved Han
cocks line on the second day, and there
the battle was decided on the third day.
Another instance on less renowned field
was the Fifth Vermont at Savage's Sta
ton, on the peninsula, in 1852.
By some misunderstanding one army
corps moved out of place on the march TO
James river in the Seven Days and part of
Franklin's Sixth corps withstood a desper-
ate onslaught from Confederates launched
forth from Richmond in pursuit. The
Fifth Vermont was in w. h T. Brooks
Vermont brigade and was recalled on the
march to make a stand for the purpose OF
gaining time. The colonel commanding,
Lewis A. Grant saw that the Confederates
had taken possession of g gorge which en-
abled them to sweep the field with bullets
and canister, and at once ordered bayo-
net charge. 1t was executed promptly and
in such fine style as to dislodge the enemy.
Then the Fifth took up a position and held
it during the fight, losing 1SS killed and
wounded out of 428 men engaged. The
killed and mortally wounded numbered 70.
One company of SO men lost ~ killed
and wounded of which % were killed.
One remarkable thing about this action
was that the killed and wounded lay on a
line as the regiment had fought. Gen. D.
II. Hill, of the Confederate army, says that
to his people it looked like whole regi-
ment stricken down in their tracks. The
Fifth made a grand fighting record all
through the war. and at the Wilderness
lost sixty-three killed out Of 40 or about
10 per cent During its entire term its
loss amounted 10 about Is per cent. in
killed
The regiment was in fighting brigade,
one that had the highest aggregate loss in
killed of any Union brigade during the
war. 1t was the original Vermont brigade,
composed Of the Second, Third, Fourth,
Fifth, Sixth and Eleventh regiments. Its
killed in the whole war was LIP. In one
action-the Wilderness-it lost 1912 killed
and wounded. In the first two weeks Of the
Wilderness campaign it lost 1876 out Of
$500 men. All of these losses fell on the
first five regiments, the Eleventh not being
engaged This Vermont brigade had no
connection with STANDARDS, that fought at
Gettysburg. STANDARDS was composed of
nine months men, and was engaged in but
one fight.
Another brigade noted for its long, high
record was the Iron Brigade Of the West. y
1t was composed Of the Second, Sixth and
Seventh Wisconsin and the Nineteenth In
diana and Twenty fourth Michigan. AT
the Second Bull Run, under Gen. Gbbon,
it lost Sq4 out of 1900 men. At c ~-tysburg
Gen. Meredith commanded and it bore the
brunt of the Confederate onset the first
day when the hero Reynolds fell. Here it
lost !, 153 out of $50 engaged. or about 81
per cent. But it accomplished much. Arch
er's Confederate brigade, the first to push
across Willoughby Run, was annihilated
by this command, which fought under the
eye of Reynolds until he fell. This brigads
also fought well az South Mountain, An.
tietam, the Wilderness and Spottsylvania.
Its loss in proportion to numbers engaged