Birmingham age-herald., 1895-09-16

Charles7 H. Grosyenor, an influential member of the house of representativ s from Ohio, who served with signal dis tinetion at Chickamauga, and who was a prominent member of the Society or the Army 9f the. canoerlss nd Genel-.... er25; .5- NeiioT, Alfo Is as acliNe in a leSisia.iAe capacity as he was on the field of bat tie thirty odd years ago, championed the measure with. characteristic energy. It was referred to the. house committee on military affairs and by them favor ably reported. .@ Ii was not until the clos ing hours of congress that unanimous consent was asked tos.call up. the meas ure. A single. objection would have de- flea ted the request. None was made: The bill was read, the house dlspehsso with the reading of the report or the committee and the measure was passed in tWcnty-three minutes.
 In the senate equal consideration was shown to the measu The sundry clyli appropriation bill was before that body when Senator Hawley of Connecticut asked that the park bill be taken up. t was read and passed unanimously. The senate clerk, Gen. Anson G. McCook of the Fighting McCooks." who partici- pated in the battle of Lookout Mountain. proved to be a faster reader than the house clerk, and as a result the Dill passed the senate in twenty minutes. IL was taken that night to President Harri- son Dy MT. iIdy EVdnS Ol (hdlldHoo6o, who represented that district in the house and who was the recent republican candidate for the goyernorship of Ten nessee. The president promptly signed it. the national park was authorized and an appropriation of $125,000 made avail able to begin the work.
 Senator Proctor of Vermont. who was then secretary of war, selected the two civilian members of the commission Gen. Joseph s. Fullerton and Alexander P. Stewart with Captain Kellogg of the Fourth cavalry, whom he detailed as the army officer provided by law and who was al lso to be secretary of the commits sion. Gen. H. V Boynton was appointed historian All these gentlemen had served in the battles about Chattanooga, General Fullerton as chief of staff to General Granger, General Stewart as division commander under Bragg, and Captain Kellogg as an aid on General Thomas staff
 General Boynton asserts that the bat tie of Chickamauga stands today as the most stubbornly contested battle of the war.
 He claims that the percentage of it's casualties are found to exceed those of the most noted battles, as well as those of the later fields of modern Europe. He goes on to show that the Third West phalian regiment became famous throughout the German army as the regiment winch suffered the heaviest loss during the Franco-P Prussian war. It went into battle 5000 strong, and its loss was 49 per cent There was nothing in the campaign of which this regiment formed a part which exceeded these figures, yet in the American civil war there were more than sixty regiments whose loss exceeded this.
 Seventeen of them lost about 60 per cent and quite a number ranged from 70 to 80. There were more than a score of regiments on each side at Chicka- mauga which exceeded that of the Vest phalian regiment. The percentage of loss in the charge of the Light brigade at Balaklava, of worldwide celebrity, was only 36 per cent Rosecrans' loss at Chattanooga was 16,000. Bragg's loss was 17,000. The total for each army was more than 25 per cent of the entire force of each side, and it averaged about 33 per cent on each side for the troops act ually engaged.