Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1895-09-05


in its effect. So in point Of fact the his
tory of the war, with its romance, i'll
pathos, its deep currents Of feeling.
whether Of sorrow or exultation, its trag
edies and its thrilling excitemcnts, comes
to this generation as the heritage of so.
900, 900 people.
There is still another side to the mag
nitude Of the war, one seldom thought
of or at least not appreciated, and that
is the cost q it all-the actual destruc-
ton involved is life and property. War
is destructive, aud if neither the cause
at stake nor the spirit Of the contest stirs
men $ blood so as to mark the genera
tions following then, the passion aroused
by personal loss will Taken in mass
the loss of life would show great cities
wiped ont, and that of property whole
states put in pawn. The number Of
men in the northern armies alone, killed
in battle, would equal the entire male
adult population Of the cities of Buffa-
10 and Cleveland-that is to say, IL ev-
cry man in those tw/eities should be
cut off by violent death. leaving every
home deso!ate and every woman and
child mourner, the calamity and the
sorrow would not be greater than those
entailed upon the whole north by the
bullets of the enemy. On the other
hand. the death roll Of the Confederates
would equal the entire male adult pop
ulation Of New Orleans as it is today.
But deaths in battle represent only
one third Of the lives sacrificed in the
service In the Union ranks there Were
$50, 900 deaths from all c;..ises during
service That number exceeds tie en-
tire male population of New York c. Y
proper. or of Chicago and Boston coal-
bined, with either Cleveland or Buffalo
thrown in. If the entire population #
ST. Louis was wiped out by death at
enc blow, the horror would just repre-
sent in point of numbers the sacrifices
Of the north alone.
Besides the death casualties in war
there are those permanently disabled by
wounds and sickness. Add the dis
abled soldiers in the northern army to
those who fell in battle or from other
causes, and the number would represent
the entire body of the inhabitants Of
Cleveland and Buffalo These are strik-
ing estimates, but they are true. They
show the waste of life, the appalling de
structiun of the best bone and sinew in
the land. If an epidemic were to pros
trate all the men in the cities Of New
York, Brooklyn. Buffalo and Cleveland,
1as tIraa -F+ha ~ fha,y, daa2 and
two-ffths MANNED for life, the calamity
would BE no greater in point Of the
numbers of victims than that entailed
by the war upon the northern states
In another portion Of this article com
PARSONS are drawn between the armies
engaged in different campaigns Of the
civil war and those If European nations
in the great struggles Of Napoleon 5
day But the representation Of armies
by figures can only impress the stron
gest imaSlnatlons or the minds Of those
trained to estimate large masses Of men.
The population # stae may present
tangible idea L. those who have travelled
beyond the limits Of their native town
or county. According 10 the census of
1890, each Of tho following eight repre-
sentative states q their sections contain
ed on an average about 500 600 PEG
pie one was as low a. 3e0. GOO and one
as high is l.10u,0on, Three stood at
LOO, coo, two at / 800, 600 and ono AZ
i, 50o.u0o II every fall grown man of
those 9 ght states should be drafted for
an army. the multitude would jus,
about equal the total number marshalc1
in the Union and Confederate armies be
tween the fall of Sumter and the sur
render at Appomattox
Again, the entire male population Of
the great states Of New York and Penn
sylvania combined with that Of any two
Of the light states named above would
but fifty represent in numbers the e
gions who wore the blue and the gray.
The idea may be presented III IN
still more simple. for many, tlan either
Of the above. If all the Inhabitants
men, women and children-of Kansas
and Virginia, or of North Carolina and
New Jersey, should be transformed into
soldiers and sent tr"oPing toward the
border III armies Of 100, 900 or goo, 600
at time, the spectacle would be par
allel # the musters Of the great upris-
ings from 81 to SG5, and al the sol
dicrs gathered i'll former conflicts # the
United States, beginning with the Rev
olution and ending with the Mexican
war, would not equal the entire popula
tion Of the smallest Of those four states
by 2j0, 600.
The cost Of the war in treasure cannot
be stated with the same cxactness as that
expended in human lives On the side
Of the south there was a vast amount of
wealth devoted 10 the cause, yet the
Confederacy created debt Of $1,000,
600, 600 Had every slave in the south
been worth $500 in cash the southern
people would have been the gamers by
setting them all free in 1861. The north
expended about $4,000, 100000 This
treasure represented the present wealth
of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania,