The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-09-25


division Joined Thomas at dark. told him
the field Bragg would retreat as he did
after the terrible three days. battle of
Stone River.
That Longstreet did not drive Thomas
from his position was not his fault nor
due to any lack Of heroic courage on the
part of his men, as the awful losses OF
Longstreet's brigades attest. The loss in
Longstreet's command was Al per cent.
and the largest part of it was incurred in
little more than an hour on the afternoon
Of the Goth. Bushrod Johnson's division
lost AZ per cent. and one Of his brigades 6S
per cent. The division commanded by
Gen. Bate, now United States senator from
Tennessee. lost 4s.7 per cent. Preston's
division lost 80 per cent, and Gracie's brig
ade 81 per cent, one of his regiments los
ing 10 per cent. Out Of zoos officers and
men Oracle lost 693 killed and wounded.
Gregg's brigade lost 40 per cent; jack
sons IS per cent; Gibson's brigade,
commanded by Gen. (now United
States senator) Gibson, lost 80 per
cent. Cleburne's division lost 43
per cent, and d. H. Hills corps "a per
cent. Wilson's brigade lost over 80 per
cent; Govan's brigade over 80 per cent,
and Walthall's SO per cent. The two days.
fighting cost US /, e56 killed. 9, 749 wounded
and 4, IA missing, or total Of 16. LIZ. The
Confederates lost 1889 killed, 13,412
wounded and zoos missing, . total OF IT,
sO4 out of 10000 The Union loss in killed
and wounded at Gettysburg the first and
second day was about 1880. Rosecrans
had about 5000 men, Meade about $4,000.
Gen. Longstreet, whose column of at
tack broke our lines when Bragg was
badly beaten at every other point, was the
hero Of the day on the Confederate side,
and Gen. George II. Thomas, who repulsed
all Longstreet's attacks upon our left
wing. won all the glory that gilded this
great Union defeat.
And yet we have called this Union de-
feat the decisive battle Of the war, because,
though tactically reverse for the Union
arms, the objective point of the whole
campaign, thanks to Bragg's failure to in
stantly press his advantage, remained in
our hands. So discouraged were his troops
by Bragg's incapacity that Lieut.. Gen. d.
H. Hill. one of Bragg's corps commanders
in this battle, says that "the Southern
soldier after Chickamauga fought with the
sullenness Of despair, not the enthusiasm
of hope. That barren victory sealed the
fate Of the Confederacy." The Union
cause was never in 50 much danger as it
was the night Of our defeat at Chicka-
manga. Had Longstreet succeeded in pre-
vailing on Bragg to listen to his coun-
sells to renew the assault on Rose
Grams before his men recovered their
morale our army would have been driven
to retreat, as ruinous as that from Mos
COW. over barren mountains, which gave US
no choice between starvation and surren-
der. East Tennessee and Kentucky would
have been occupied by the enemy, who
thus would have been placed in q situation
of enormous advantage for communicating
by rail with Lee in Virginia. Longstreet.
failing to make Bragg reap the fruits of
his victory, told JEFF Davis that the last
chance of the Confederacy was lost with
this failure to recover Chattanooga; that
every soldier slain thenceforth was MUIR
der; that with Vicksburg and Chattanooga
in our possession the fall Of the Confeder-
acy was q military certainty.
The ordinary good fortune Of war left
the Confederates in their best opportuni-
ties. They lost New Orleans by extra
ordinary failure to erect proper defenses;
lost Fort Donelson with Kentucky and
West Tennessee by the folly of Gen. Sidney
Johnstone; Shiloh by the elements and
Gen. Polk; Stone River when victory
seemed sure; Gettysburg by Lees RASH
ness: Vicksburg by the stupidity Of Penn
berton, and the fruits of Chickamauga by
Bragg's hesitation and lack of moral cour-
age.
The Comic de Paris, the French historian
of our civil war, while severely censuring
Rosecrans for his course both before, dur
ing and after Chickarnauga, is none the less
of opinion that the final responsibility for
the disaster rests with Halleck, who, by
suspending the operations Of the other
armies, enabled the Confederates to rein
force Bragg and to concentrate q force
superior in all arms to that under Rose
Grams.