The evening times., 1898-10-19
DEATHS IN WAR.

One of the most timely and Instructive
contributors TO the literature of war is
written by Leslie j. Perry for the Chica-
go Record. 1t is a complete answer TO
those who maintain that in the with
Spain the proportion of losses by disease
TO losses in battle, as compared with rec
ords of the civil war, shows that the
deaths among our soldiers have not been
excessive. He proves that, taking only
the troops actually engaged in battle in
the civil war. more were killed by the
enemy than died of disease in the four
years. He writes:
The death lists of the civil war furnish
various interesting statistics, not only for
speculation, but for the instruction of the
committee now in session in Washington
to investigate kindred subjects in relation
to the Spanish war. The statistical ex-
hibit of deaths in the Union army for the
whole war, covering the two principal
causes which have interest to the public
in current discussions, shows the follow
ing aggregates:
Killed died cf wounds, lSgl-ls5j. 1857
Died Of disease, same period .2z5. .c0I
Total deaths from these two causes 324.9 .
Besides these there were deaths from
various other causes-military executions,
suicide, drowning murder, railway and
steamboat accidentS-Swelling the grand
aggregate of deaths from all causes in
the four years to the frightful total of
3G0, ,z07. These are the official figures, COM
piled after an exhaustive examination of
he = been
recently in the controversy going on, they
demonstrate that more than twice ~aS
many died of disease as were killed by
Confederate bullets or died OF their
wounds, great as was the aggregate. But
IL must not be overlooked that the fig
ures cover all the troops of the United
States service, several hundred thou
sand of which never heard a hostile shot.
They include the garrison troops, guards
of prison camps ard reserves, as well as
the veteran armies in daily presence of
the enemy
"A careful analysis of these death sta
tistics develops one important fact, how
ever, which has heretofore escaped the
eyes of those writers who have recently
been so prolific of theories and statistics
concerning the many aspects of mortality
in volunteer armies II is this: While
the general average clearly shows that far
killed by Southern bullets the rule when
applied TO the armies in the field, TO the
fighting regiments does not hold good.
In these commands II is found that de-
cidedly more men Were killed than died
of disease. Perhaps if all the regiments
infantry, cavalry and artillery train
guards, teamsters, etc.-compo5ing one
of the active armies. were included in
a consolidated exhibit. disease might still
have the majority. But the following fig
ures. covering a large number of fight
ing regiments having a maximum of bat
tie losses, prove that in their case, at
least, the enemy was more fatal than
disease. These regiments represent all
the great Union armies that operated
in the Mississippi Valley and on the At
lantic and Gulf sea boards
These findings are made up in Fox 5
book of official 'Regimental Losses, and
are surprising. In the forty-five regi-
ments enumerated. having a total enroll
ment of SIS 0i6 men. il appears that 10 225
of them were killed outright in battle
or died soon after of their wounds. while
only 1852 men succumbed 10 disease dur
ing the service of these commands. which.
in most cases, was throughout the war.
Thus more than one-quarter of the
whole of these selected commands lost
their lives"
The writer brings out the interesting
fact that the percentage of killed in the
Second Wisconsin Infantry is officially
stated 10 have been the greatest in all
the more than 2.000 regiments which sery-
ed from first 10 last in the Union armies
1t had 23S men killed out of total en-
roliment of only 1903 men. Col Fox
truthfully remarks in his great statistical
work that this loss in the Second Wis
consin indicates the eXetreme limit OF
danger to which human life is exposed
in war similar In duration and activity
TO the American civil war Yet the to-
tai loss In this Northern regiment from
disease was only T7-comparatively light.