Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-08-14

onor,, - tn1nk the loss of the
enemy d must be greater, we having taken
Iser 4,ooo prisoners in battle, while he
a aas eaken but few except strapelers. Z
am i1 now sending back to Belle Pia;n
I'll my wagons for fresh sunnlv ~
provisions and ammunition, and nro.
pose to fight it out on this line il +
taxes oil summer. The arrival of ra.
endorsements here will be yerv an.
couraging to the men, and I hone thav
WI. DC sent as fast as possible and in
as great numbers. am satisfied the
enemy are very shaky and are only
Aepe up to the mark by the greatest
e1ert!ons on the part of their officers.
and by keeping them intrenched in
every position they take. On to this
time there is no indication Of Lees
army being detached for the defense
of Richmond" --''
heavy rains impeded operations for
several days at Spottsylvania, and
Grant telegraphed to Halleck NAV is:
lou can assure the President and
Secretary of War that the elements
alone have suspended hostilities, and
that 1t is in no manner due to weak
ness on our part" For several DAYS
Grants dispatches referred to matters
OF detail and to the cooperative move
ments of other armies in the field.
When Lee took position on the North
Anna, Grant had reached the impor.
tant conclusion that Lee must thence.
forward necessarily act on the
defensive. He telegraphed to Hal.
leck May 26: Lees army is
really whipped. The prisoners
we now take show it, and the action
OF his army shows it Enthusiastically. A
battle with them outside intrench-
ments cannot be had. Our men feel
that they have gained the morale over
the enemy and attack with confidence.
may be mistaken, but feel that our
success over Lees army is already as
sured." Thus twenty-five days after
crossing the Rapidan Grant felt that
Lee would never again venture upon q
battle in the open field. The impress
sion was correct. The result of the
battles in the Wilderness was that the
rest of the war in Virginia was siege.
June Grant announced to Halleck
that his plan had been to beat Lees
army north Of Richmond, to destroy
his lines of communication north of the
James, and then transfer the army to
the south side of the James to besiege
Lee in Richmond or follow him if he
retreated. This is just what Grant
finally accomplished. Lees army was
too crippled to operate north of the
James; Grant besieged him from the
south side of the river, and when Lee
retreated Grant pursued and captured
his army. Grant had hoped to accom-
plish this, or nearly this, in one cam
paign. As a matter of fact, it occupied
him little less than eleven months,
and the end was the complete oblitera-
ton of Lees army, which was more
than Grant could reasonably have
counted upon.
An official tabular statement is given
of casualties in the Army of the Poto.
mao from May 5. 1864, the opening o.
the campaign, to Nov. ! following
The killed were 1876 officers. 9,776men
wounded, 2,796 officers and 81, l61 men
The total of killed and wounded
reached the enormous figures, GA, 500.
The missing were IT'S officers and
%, O83 men. The official total of killed
wounded and missing in the Army o.
the Potomic at the end of five months
was 88,387. This is startling fact
More than two-thirds of the army tina
crossed the Rapidan in May had beer
struck down or was reported missing
Where were the missing? This is mo-
explained. In dispatch to Secretary
Stanton from "near Spottsylvania'
May 10 Assistant Secretary Dams
stated that at the end of four days
fighting the total of killed, wounded
stragglers and missing in the Army O.
the Potomac was 27,621, exclusive O.
the cavalry. "Of course" he said
"great numbers of men who are lying
around in the woods will soon return
to their commands, but many of these
are worthless for fighting purposes.
As the Confederates captured compare
lively few prisoners. the $4,000 mer
missing from the Army of the Potoma.
in November largely remain to be 9th
erwise accounted for.
About one hundred pages of this
volume are given to Confederate dis
patches and reports during the strug
| gle III the WuuoTueSS. A4CoE 4odV4ut
Spottsyvania Court House Lee dated
his dispatches simply, "Headquarterl
Army of Northern Virginia" which
withheld from the public the fact tina
he was gradually retreating upor
Richmond. In the Wilderness battles
the Confederates lost about as many
general officers as the Union army
What Lees casualties were in falling
back from the Rapidan to Richmond i
yet to be satisfactorily determined
But we find complete report Of tn
casualties in the artillery Of the Arm.
of Northern Virginia from May 4, 1864
to Dec. of the same year. The mum
Der of killed was, officers 20; men 279
wounded, officers 50; men COL; miss
ing, officers II; men 483. Total casu
allies in the artillery were ], 1858. The
Medical Director of the Second
(Ewell's) Corps reported that the kill
ed and wounded in the corps for the
month of May, 1864, was 4, 453. These
figures, it will be observed, do not in
clude the missing. Lees losses during
May, 1864, must have been fully %,
600 men. His army, in proportion te
its size, suffered almost as much q