El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-08-24
The American As A Fighter.
Kansas City Journal

L
1t is a mistake to suppose that the
battle of Santiago was marked by such
| great casualties as to fit it to rank
among the bloodiest conflicts of the
world. We are indebted to Mr.. Ruper,
| Hughes, who contributes an article tc
| the New York Criterion, for some bat.
| tie statistics which show that many en-.
& agements In our. civil war bad far
gre alter per cent of casualties. The
total oss to Skaters army by death
and wounds was q little more th an IC
per cent, while in the battle of Shiloh
Murfreesboro and Chickamauga the
losses ranged from Is to "a per cent.
"As for single bodies of men" says
Mr.. Hughes, "the light brigade made. q
| foolish charge bravely and won i'm
mortality, thanks to great lyric; it
suffered loss of 81 per cent killed
and wounded. In the civil war 262 men
in the First Minnesota volunteers
charged whole division at Gettys-
burg, and leaving 2l5 dead and wound
ed behind, brought away the rebel
colors. While the light brigade lost
81 per cent and accomplished nothing
except to immortalize a blunder, the
First Minnesota lost 80 per cent and
gained vitality important point. And
as for useless bravery, what is the Ba-
laklsvan 81 per cent to the 10 per cent
of the Maine Heavies in a seven min
ute charge at Petersburg?''
At the battles of Metz and Marsha
Tour two German regiments lost res
pectively 46 and 40 per cent, and the
TW enty-siXth Russian lost as per cent
at Plevna. But in the battles of our
civil war no less thar fifteen Union and
five confederate regiments lost over so
per cent. The First Texas lost more
than 81 per cent at Autietam, aud in
one company of the Twenty-sixth
North Carolina only three men escaped
out of eighty-seven, loss of more than
90 per cent. This hideous carnage, ("
says Mr.. Hughes, Twas the result, not
Of our fighting aliens, but our fighting
each other. And the history of the
world has no parallel to it. Why, the
wars, French and Indian. Re-
volutionary. 1912, Mexican and Indian,
do not exceed the loss of Grants army
in the week ending May II, 1865.
Grants killed and wounded in the
Wilderness and Spottsylvania were
five times Nspoleon's loss at Marengo,
more than his losses in all his Italian
campaigns, three times the loss inflict-
ed on Wellington at Waterloo. The
reason for this unheard of slaughter?
There is just one reason; the most in
SSAAtESost VIC VIC uCTCCos oOi-
diery in the worlds history was divid-
ed against itself. All that straight
shooting, that battle fury, that deter
mination which does not falter when
death is busy on all sides-all those
qualities that make up the word
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES turned inward
at the nations own beart.''
But the battle of Santiago was
fought fiercely enough to shed sddi-
tional glory upon American arms. 1t
is regarded by the worlds military
authorities that the loss of 10 per cent
Is more than enough to justify retreat
And yet certain of the regiments lost
more than 40 per cent and still press
ed on to victory without thought of
yielding a single foot gained. Captain
Ducat, OF the Twenty-fourth regulars,
led glorious charge up long hill at
San Juan. He started with seventy
five men and only twenty-five OF them
reached the blockhouse at the top.
But, Though they lost fifty-seven kill
ed and wounded, the important fact,
the American fact, is that they cap
tured what they went for" The per-
centage of sloss was 76, and this is
double the loss at Balaklavs, and more
than the loss in the Russian charge at
Plevna, neither of which was success
full.
Rochefort declares that no other
people on earth have $50 much con-
tempt for death" as the Americans.
He admits it as beyond cavil that the