Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1896-06-12

a6OIueIu1ns WOr6uy VI uOdsNu6' ~ AAuoo
not be inferred that eleventh hour regl-
ments were filled with eleventh hour men
exclusively. Take for instance, the Thir-
ty-flrst Maine, which marched out Of Au-
Rusta to the tune of tThe Girl Left 3D.
hind Me- on April 10, 1864. 1t was Off
scerod by soldiers who had served from ono
to three years at the front. AS for the
ranks of the now candidate. had all tho
raw recruits repented of their war onthu-
siasm at the last moment and nunked.
there would still have remained In line
body Of men, all veterans, equal in num-
bers to the average field regiment on going
into battle. Volunteers of 1864 demanded
that they be led to battle by Veterans, and
every veteran officer appointed i'll a new
organization rallied around him scores Of
former comrades ready to try 1t over again
under leadership which had been tested.
There were 81 field and limo officers in
the Thirty-frst when it entered the Will
derness, May 6, 1864, and IN less than 80
days, or before tho close of July, II of
them were struck dead in battlo. The
strength of the ranks at tho Wilderness
was 9O5. Out of that identical roster 1853
were killed and over 400 wounded before
one year of field service Ect, onaed, and
nearly so per cent of those casualties were
Incurred in tho first three months.
At the close of the last baltic of the
summer series, fought at Poplar Springs
church, only a handful remained to escort
the colors off the field: Sergeant Kilnball
of Company II was the ranking officer and
assumed command In five months cam
paigning tho Thirty first had boon virtu-
ally wiped OUT Its total loss in officers
killed and mortally wounded had reached
10, circumstance unparalleled in the
war. / During three years active service,
from Juno, 1869, to April, 1865, the Sixty
first Pennsylvania lost On equal number.
the highest on record. ~ u. 49,
Still the Thirty first Maino did not
abandon the fight. About 900 fresh men
were transferred to It's ranks, and it kept
the field until the end. It's grand total OF
killed and wounded was 6SS; killed and
morally wounded, 1885, and of deaths from
all causes, 800. An '.elevert tn hour" regi-
ment indeed! 200" -..
Wisconsin sent out the Thirty sixth reg
iment In 1864. The Thirty sixth was or
ganized May 10, and on the 10Th was I'M
der fire at the Battle of Spottsylvania. In
charge at Bethesda church Gold Har-
bor), in June there ,wero $40 men in line.
and 1873 of them went down. On that
A. Haskell. In one of the bloodiest
charges at Petersburg this regiment suf-
fered tho heaviest of any engaged.
At the end of three months fighting the
Thirty sixth mustered 1856 officers and
mon. 1t had started out with LOLA. At
the battle of Reams' Station, in August,
there were 50 survivors to escort the colors
from the battlefield. The death roll of the
regiment in ten months was 1877 fallen in
battle, besides 421 wounded and recovered.
Death claimed 342 of these Wisconsin sol
.diers during their one year Of service. In
Guiding the wounded, then, there were 763
victims Of wars terrible punishment.
Another crack infantry regiment Of 1864
was the Seventeenth Vermont. In ten
months of fighting it lost 147 killed in
battle and 876 wounded and recovered.
Those figures tell story Of close work.
The proportion of killed to wounded was
very high. And now for good word for
the heavy artillery regiments which took
the field as infantry In 1864. Nearly all
of these regiments had been organized as
infantry originally, and then placed on
garrison duty'for the defense of important
forts. In point of fact they entered the
battle as trained reserves. In the spirited
little volume entitled "Recollections of a
! Private Frank Wilkinson gives a realistic