Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-12-27
w AR REV LA1ION
The Work That is Being Done in the
War Department.
FOrty-Nine Volumes Now Completed
tory Ever Published of a War.

From the Baltimore Herald.
Though but little has been printed con-
corning the work Of the war records ONCE
Of the War Department, yet this has been Q
tremendous task. Forty-nine volumes, Of
nearly thousand pages EACH are complet-
ed. and furnish the most accurate history
ever published Of nations internecine
war. The work has been impartially done.
Besides the five Union officers employed. two
Confederate general officers have always
been engaged in editing the war archives
pertaining to the dead confederacy. Those
now employed are Lieut.. Gen. Alexander p.
Stewart of Mississippi, a graduate of West
Point and corps commander in the Army of
the Tennessee, for that army, and Maj.
Gen. L. L. Lomax of Virginia. one Of ]. E.
b. Stewards best cavalry officers, for the
Army of Northern Virginia.
The most interesting feature of the work
Is not yet in print, but in course of prepara-
ton. 1t Is an exhaustive compilation from
official records of the casualties on both
sides in the war. The labor has taken niany
years. The result will be the most valua-
BILE volume in the history of the war that
can ever he published. Here are facts, not
opinions. The arguments here make them
selves unanswerable, unless these statistics
are shown to be wrong and other and diff
ferent statistics shown to be right. 1t will
be made plain beyond all room tor contro-
versy, in this volume, that much of the
hardest fighting of the war was between
the Army OF the Potomac and the Army of
Northern Virginia, and the figures in this
volume will snow that the infantry regi-
mentS from the eastern states did the hard
est lighting in the Union army. They also
prove that the confederacy succumbed by
the exhaustion of Lees army, and are an
emphatic comment upon the idleness of any
military theory that a different conduct OF
campaign or other tactics than those ac-
tua,iy adopted would have ended the war
before the forces of the confederacy were
| do Gt.Ntv
other civil wars which have been prolonged
far beyond the point where one nation
would have Acknowledged itself beaten by
another, the war for the Union had to be
fought out to the end.
Many OF the revelations in this import
ant volume will astonish the reader. the
tables OF deaths and wounds that are given
measure the actual fighting as nothing else
can. They carry conviction toward re-
versal OF any judgment founded merely
upon general claims. One thing clearly
shown Is the overshadowing importance Of
the battles of Gettysburg and Chackamau-
ga. the greatest battles the Confederate and
Union armies, east and west, ever fought.
The losses in these engagements prove how
/ much fercer was the ngntlng in these bat
ties than IL was before or ever was again
between the two armies engaged during the
war. On the other hand other battles
have made military regulations sink into
comparative insigniicance. Meade gains,
and sheridan. for instance. loses by the
bringing together of these statistics The
| heroic valor of the North Carolina troops
eNcites the highest admiration. and Penn
| syVania, which lost more in killed and
wounded. in proportion to the number Of It's
/ troops, than any northern state, can well
| send greeting to North Carolina, whose
| soldiers at Gettysburg did the hardest fght-
| ing On the other side, over the happy re-
union Of the present years.
In the Onion armies there were. In all,
$500 regiments, not including the three or
! san montns men. The Union infantry regi-
ment which suffered the greatest loss in
! battle during the war was the nth New
Hampshire, which, in four years Of service.
| lost .35 men killed or mortaiiy wounded in
action. including eighteen officers. The
! eighty third Pennsylvania infantry comes
next. Ii lost d. officers and men.
There were only forty-hve infantry regi-
| ments which had, during the war, over 40
| men killed or mortally wounded in action.
! OF these regiments. Pennsylvania furnished
eleven, greater number than any other
STATE. New York. Massachusetts and Michi-
San furnished six each, and little Vermont
closely followed with four. The Pennsylva-
MA regiments on this honor list were the
eIghty-third. one hundred and NTH. sixty
] first, eleventh. forty-tfth, one hundredth.
/ one hundredth and eighth, eiyhty-arst, fifty
fifth: one hundred and forty-tifth and nifty
| third.
In the killed and woun led of the Union
| light artillery regiments, Cooper's battery OF
| the first Pennsylvania artillery heads the
| list with a loss of twenty-one killed and
MORALLY wounded in action. Ricketts, Penn
! Sylvania battery is seventh, with a loss of
eighteen, and Bigelows Massachusetts il
ninth, with a loss OF fifteen. The regiment
| which had the most killed and wounded in
action during the entire war; in proportion
! 70 its enrolment, was the second Wiscon-
sin, with Il percentage loss of 1914 per cent.
| OF the twenty-five regiments whose loss
was above 10 per cent, Pennsylvania fur
| nishe3 the highest number, six; Wisconsin
| cores nc,,t with four, and New York and
| Massachusetts, give two each.
| The Union infantry regiment with the
| highest percentage OF killed. wounded and
missing IN any one action was the first Min
nesota, which at Gettysburg lost 2l3 men on
! July =, out OF 20o eng gagged. The one hun
dred and forty-first Pennsylvania is second.
/ having lost at Gettysburg lao men out Of
! lbs engaged or 1871 per cent. This volume
VIII give table showing siXty-two Union
regiments which lost in action from 81 to 80
! per cent. The Light Brigade at Balaklava
/ lost 3c.7 per cent. The heaviest loss OF any
/ German regiment in the Franco-Pruss!an
war was i3.4 per cent.
At Waterloo the French had $1,000 men
! and ~ guns; the allies 1a.0,D men and 1856
! guns. At Gettysburg Meade hal $1,000 men
! and 300 guns, and Lee To,oD .Ien and 30
| guns. Wellington, at Waterloo. lost -, 1866
! Meade. at Gettysburg. 2t,pE,: Napoleon, ~
go, and Lee. 2J,4IS At Graveiotte the
! Germans lost 2b,5II out oil f46,'s1 troops en-
! gagged. AT Borodino. the bloodest battle
/ since the introduction OF gunpow der, the
! Russians lost $4,000 and the French over
{ 2t.tnp. bat the percentage of loss was less
! than at Gettysburg, Chickamauga, or Wa
| terloo
! In the civil war the Cnion armies lost
! aD5,2i5 in killed rlortaily wounded and Sc
| vere!y wounded 4 re total enrolment OF the
: Unicn armies. officers and mel not includ-
: ing three and six montAs' men, was 2,S6l,2I2
! lIO,010 Of these were killed, and the deaths
/ from diseases wounds and other causes
were 359, 52S mere. The confederate army
; and n1Vy's tot2i enrolment, including all
/ classes ANA the transcriptons, was about
: G1.@G men, cut Of q population of 5,o0o,OO0
/ whites.
! Twenty-eight per cent Of the Union SOL
/ diers at Andersonviile died: - FER cent of
| the con:ederates confined at Elnira, n. Y,
! died; .,.9SS of the latter were buried in
| field, which, year or two afterward, was
| plowed over and planted in wheat
/ This is the book of revelations as to both
| sides in the civil war On the confederate
side North Carolina lost more soldiers killed
/ than any other southern state. The follow
| ing was the loss in killed and MORALLY
| wounded of several of the southern states:
| North Carolina, 4522: Virginia, 5,32S; South
| Carolina, 9,lS1; Georgia, $3.50; Mississippi,
5,SO7; Louisiana. 9.174. North Carolina heads
| the list in the number that died of wounds,
! and 20GO2 Of her sons died Of disease. and
6947 Vrginians. North Cardinals military
population in 1851 was 1880 but she fur
nished 1880 men to the confederate cause.
| The percentage Of lost and killed ana
| wounded was greater in the confederate ar
miles than In the Union armies. At Gettys-
burg the twenty-sixth North Carolina Of
| t,~,r~ 40 f~<o o4tIA -