The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-08-09
LOSSES IN BATTLE.
HONOR ROLL OF THE CONFED-
ERACY.
North Carolina Far in Lead---
Facts Well Known Among Tar
Heels, Now Revealed to the
World---The Brilliant Record
fVance's Old Regiment.
New York Times |

ofVance's Old Regiment.
New York Times
Though but little has been printed
concerning the work OF the War Re
cords Office of the War Department,
yet this has been a tremendous task.
Forty-nine volumes of nearly thou
sand pages each, are completed, and
furnish the most accurate history ever
published Of nations internecine war.
The work has been partially done.
Beside the five Union officers, employ
ed, two Confederate general officers
have always been engaged in editing
the war archives pertaining to the
dead Confederacy. Those now en-
ployed 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. Stuart's 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 preparation. 1t is an exhaustive
compilation from the official records
of the casualties on both sides in the
war. The labor has taken many years.
The result will be the most valuable
volume in the history Of the war that
can ever be published. Here are facts,
not opinions. The arguments here
make themselves unanswerable, unless
these statistics are shown to be wrong
and other and different statistics
shown to be right. 1t will be made
plain beyond all room for controversy,
in this volume, that much Of the hard
est fighting of the war was between
the Army of the Potomac and the Ar
my of Northern Virginia, and the fig
ures in this volume will show that the
infantry regiments from the Eastern
States did the hardest fighting 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 actually adopted would
have ended the war before the forces
of the Confederacy were destroyed.
They demonstrate, too, that, like 9th
er civil wars which have been pro-
longed 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 i'm
portant volume will astonish the read
er. The tables Of death and wounds
that are given measure the actual fight
ing as nothing else can. They carry
conviction toward a reversal of any
judgment founded merely upon gen.
eral claims. One thing clearly shown
is the overshadowing importance Of
the battles of Gettysburg and Chicka
mauga, the greatest battles the Confed
crate and Union armies ever fought.
The losses in these engagements prove
how much hercer was the fighting in
these battles than it was before or
ever was again between the two armies
engaged during the war. On the
other hand other battles which have
made military regulations, sink into
comparative insignificanCe. Meade
gains and Sheridan, for instance, loses,
by the bringing together of these sta
tistics. The heroic valor of the North
Carolina troops excites the highest ad-
miration, and Pennsylvania, which
lost more in killed or wounded, in
proportion to the number OF its troops,
than any Northern State, can we'll
send greeting to North Carolina,
whose soldiers at Gettysburg did the
hardest fighting on the other side,
over the happy reunion of the present
years.
In the Union armies there were, in
all, $500 regiments, not including
the three or six months men. The
Union infantry regiment which suf
feled the greatest loss in battle during
the war was the Fifth New Hampshire,
which in four years of suffering los
2o5 men killed or mortally wounded
in action, including IS officers. The
Eighty-third Pennsylvania Infantry
came next. 1t lost 2S2 officers anC
men.
There were only forty-hve Infantry
regiments which had been in the war
which had 200 men killed or mortally
wounded in action. Of these regl
ments Pennsylvania furnished eleven
greater number than any othel
State. New York, Massachusetts, and
Michigan furnished six each, and lit
tie Vermont closely followed will
four.
In the killed and wounded of tn
Union light artillery regiments, Coop
er's Battery Of the Frst Pennsylvan
Artillery, heads the list, with loss o
Fl killed and mortally wounded il
: action. Ricketts, Pennsylvania Bat
E terry is seventh, with loss Of IS, ant
Bigelow's Massachusetts, is ninth
with a loss of IS. The regimen
S which had the most killed ant
t wounded in action during the entir
I war in proportion to its enrollmen
u was the Second Wisconsin, with
), percentage loss of 1914 per cent. {
d the twenty-five regiments, whose lo
was above IS per cent, Pennsylyanj
furnishes the highest number, 6; Wi
IS consin comes next with four, an
= New York and Massachusetts, with
is each.