The age-herald., 1899-08-27
LOSS IN THE
 LATE CIVIL WAR

It is particularly seasonable, in view or the generation growing up without knowl- edge of the civil war and with the hard ships and difficulties of that struggle re- duced to the standard of those in the war with Spain, to call attention to the losses of some of the regiments on both sides, the north and the south, during the eos. Some of these, enough to serve the purpose here, have recently been published in the admirable book of war stories written by Ira Seymour Dodd, and called, from the first of them, "The Song of the Rappahan- nock."
 We all have conception of the losses of the struggle with Spain and of the outcry which went up all over the land when the deaths from sickness in the field began to run into the thousands; but Mir Dodd, in setting down the losses by death in battle at 100000 in the civil war, leaves out of account the still larger number who perished from disease and exhaustion. And he goes to show a still more significant thng-that Bull Run alone excepted, where two armies almost wholly unor- ganized met in battle, and the army of the north was seized with panic, there was never a complete rout from one end of the hostilites to the other. Nor was there a decisive victory won by either side. Nor was there a single occasion when either side was obliged to admit itself defeated or felt itself to be defeated. The war stop ped when the south became exhausted, not before.
 The First Minnesota regiment, which MT. Dodd takes as an example of conspicu- ous heroism, does not loom above other commands, north and south, by reason of any conspicuous heroism That no regi- ment came out of the civil war with such overwhelming popularity as the rough riders is due to the fact that there were, literally, hundreds of regiments which equaled the record of that latter organiza- tion in duty done without fear or complain , ing, while scores surpassed it in the ex- tent and gravity of losses and in devotion to duty under circumstances wholly ad- verse; Indeed in bringing up the ex- ample of the First Minnesota, the author is careful to say that its astonishing sac- 5 rifice can be paralleled several times on both sides This is its record at Gettys- burg:
 Two companies had been detached from the regiment for other duty and losses on many former fields of battle had reduced the effective strength of the command to 262 men. Longstreet was attacking the Third army corps and was beating them backward. The Minnesota men were sup porting battery of the Fourth United States artillery. The union men were in full retreat, passing the battery and It's silent line of infantry before 1t. On a sudden two Confederate brigades rushed from the woods, charging upon gap In the Union line. Hancock was there and saw the danger He stands beside Col yille the Minnesota colonel, points to the oncoming ranks of the yelling enemy and gives the order to charge.
 The command is instantly given and the 2s2 go forth to battle with the 5000. Both are going down hill, to the dry bed Of a little brook. The enemy reach it first and their line Is dsordered a little by the crossing. At that moment Colville gives the order to charge. With fixed bayonets the Minnesota men come at full run The astonished southerners give way As the front line recoils the Minnesota men halt at the word and fire. Then they drop down in the bed of the brook. In fifteen minutes from the time they went into the fight they are relieved by three brigades and the day is saved by their sacrifice. And sacrifice 1t is, for only forty-seven men are left out of the 262! Nor Is that all The two companies come in at nightfall from their detailed duty elsewhere and next day when Picketts heroic charge was rolled back, the First Minnesota was in the thick of 1t, losing a captain and sixteen more men.
 Some comparisons are instructive The loss of the rough riders at San Juan was ninety out of 49O, trife less than 19 per cent; the loss of the Light Brigade at Balaklava was PAY out of 673 or not quite 37 per cent; the heaviest loss in the Franco-Prussian war was that of the Sixteenth German infantry at Mars-le- Tour, which was not quite 49 per cent Colonel Fox, quoted by MT. Dodd, gives list of sixty-four Union regiments. and al- most as many Confederate, whose losses in single battles ranged from 50 to 80 per cent!