Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-07-20
A Lucky Individual.

A Lucky Individual.
 At one point was Confederate regi- ment mostly from West Virginia, and of
 the company on the extreme left all wero
 killed or wounded but one, as there was q
 sudden enfilading fire from the Federals.
 Monroe Hansford, the lucky man, has
 had an extraordinary career and is still
 living. did not sec him, but his brother
 gave me this account: "Well, reckon if
 this world was to break in pieces Monroe
 Hansford would manage to get on the big
 gest and come out alivo. He has been
 mighty near death in every sort of way,
 by boats sinking or exploding and in
 shooting and cutting scrapes, and in the
 Wilderness he put up his own headstone
 and lived to tell 1t. They were ordered to
 lie down till the Yankees came close up,
 and the lower half of his body was in a
 little gully. Seeing big flat stone near
 him, he picked it up and held it up edge
 ways just in front of his head. It was
 struck by six or seven rife bullets, and
 the men to the right and left of him, three
 or four each way, were killed and all the
 rest wounded, but he escaped"
 The Sedgwick monument was put up on
 the 18th of May, 1887, and for three days
 @ large concourse of survivors of the old
 Sixth corps rambled over the various bat
 tlefie!ds in the vicinity. All the neigh borS with whom talked did not fail to
 inform mo that the Battlefield association paid Mrs. Owens $50 for the acre on which the monument stands, which is from to 50 times as much as the current price of
 land anywhere in the region. All the his torians say that no one can understand
 these Wilderness battles or comprehend the
 reasons for Grants attack on May 12 un-
 less he comes here and studies the ground. We'll, for myself only I must say that ! after walking all over the field can see
 how they fought, but as to reasons for this battle I know what I did before-juSt nothing at all. do not wonder that popu- lar opinion through all this section of Virginia is unanimous in regard to the Federal commander. This was the last
 battle save one in which he hurled his vet
 erans headlong on strong breastworkS manned by expert riflemen, so this may
 be a good time to present Q few local facts explanatory of the opinion here about this battle.
 A Remarkable Fact.
 The "hammering'' process, of which
 some writers still speak approvingly, was begun May by order of General Grant and terminated June by order of his soldiers It lasted just 30 days, and the Federal losses averaged 5000 per day. The Virginia estimate, therefore, is that had that policy been continued it would have cost 300, 900 men to take Rich
 mond Measured, however, by the time l in action the loss per hour increased at an almost geometrical ratio. Thus at the last | desperate charge of the so called Wilderness series twice as many men were lost as in the first; at Laurel Hill the loss was doubled again, at the bloody angle nearly | doubled again, and at Cold Harbor the
 loss was between 5000 and 5000 in half an hour, or at the rate of 17, 1000 per hour. Then, the only case recorded in history so far as know, q whole army without pre- vious understanding unanimously refused obedience. The order for another charge
 was given, repeated by corps and division commanders, and so on down the line of officers. The trumpetS sounded the charge.
 The whole army stood still It should not be forgotten that it was not the general who stopped the "hammcring'' process by
 his own will. It was the private soldiers who did it, and most remarkable and dramatic circumstance it was.
 Mcclellan reached the James river with | B loss of 19,O00 and inflicted a loss of 21, | 900 on Lee. Grant reached the same place | with q loss of 60, 900 men, inflicting loss | of 23, 900 on Lee. At that point both pro- posed the same plan. In 1862 it was re- | jected, and in 1864 it was accepted. Mo Clellan did not venture to promise that Richmond could be taken by his plan in
 less than six months, and his proposition
 was ridiculed accordingly. Grant did it | in nine months. If this were ali, VIC could quickly decide the old contention as to relative rank of the commanders of the Army of the Potomac, but there is a deal more. Grant was always respectful to his | superiors, Mcclellan often grossly insult ing and generally contemptuous. Our civil war cannot be judged by old world standards, for the political fights were, if | possible, even more important than the | military. The administration could drive | on the soldiers or trust bulldog generals to do so, but it had to satisfy the men who | supported the war. In 1861 and 1862 these
 men were fiercely impatient of delay and ! timid to loss of life, taxation and OK | penditures. In 1864 they were in the hu nor to spend every dollar, sacrifice every man and to go to any length necessary in | winding up the job. It was tho temper of | the north that determined the queer tor tuous course of tho Army of the Potomac
 and its generals. It was the happy fortune l of the Army of the Cumberland and tho \ Army of tho Tennessee to be so far away
 from Washington that the administration
 was not held politically responsible for l their movements. J. H. BEADLE.