Omaha daily bee., 1899-11-22
FOURTEEN MONTHS OF FIGHTING
Review of the Losses Sustained by
the American Army.

Boston Transcript
We are just beginning to learn the rca
extent OF our losses in the war with Spain
and its sequel, the hostilities against the
! Philippine insurgents The knowledge is i'm
/ portant, as 1t corrects exaggerated esti-
mates formed by many persons who read
about our soldiers dying like sheep" In
letters written by correspondents who had
never seen either campaigns or hospitals
before. Tables in the report OF the adju-
tant general of the army dealing with the
mortality between May L. 1885, and June 3,
1899, show that the losses were only such
as might have been expected in tropical
campaigns and in military force the larger
part Of which was not long enough in serv-
ice to learn how to take care OF itself.
The killed in action in the time covered
by the report numbered twenty officers
of the regular army and seventeen officers
of volunteers; 265 enlisted men of the regu-
lars and 1873 OF the volunteers, making a
total Of forty officers and 453 enlisted men.
With these in figuring out losses in battle
should be grouped those who died of wounds,
seven officers and la enlisted men OF the
regulars and three officers and seventy
seven enlisted men of the volunteers. Put
ting these two classes together it will be
seen that the total OF the casualties charge
able to the battlefield was fifty officers and
GA enlisted men In the fourteen months
with which the tables deal.
The heaviest losses we sustained were in
the hospitals, for under deaths from dis
ease are recorded fifty-one officers and 1894
enlisted men of the regulars. and ia officers
and $500 enlisted men of the volunteers.
Practically eight deaths occurred from dis
ease for every one chargeable to the battle
field. Deaths from all other causes num-
bered four officers and lis enlisted men in
the regulars and seven officers and 223 men
in the volunteers. The total of the death
list, officers and men, is $500.
The localities in which casualties occurred
are also corrective of some popular impress
sions. OF the casualties of the battlefield
less than one-half, 800 officers and men, oc
Cured In the brief Cuban campaign, in which
certainly not over $4,000 troops were ever
under fire at one time. In the Philippines
the killed in action and mortally wounded in
the four months covered by the table num-
bered 34S out of force averaging nearly
twice as many men as General Shafter had
with him at Santiago. This fact proves
pretty conclusively that the insurgents can
not have been anywhere near as effective
soldiers as the Spanish troops we encoun-
tered in Cuba. Nor does the climate of the
Philippines appear to have been as trying to
our men as that of Cuba, for the total deaths
from disease were 333 in the Philippines and
S62 in Cuba.
The totals were, moreover, completely
thrown into the shade by the deaths in the
army in the United States from disease, 906
regulars and 1923 volunteers of all ranks
perishing, an aggregate of 3,S29. Chicka-
mauga and Montauk are, of course largely
accountable for this. After making all al
lowances for the effect of foreign service as
seen at the latter camp, this large mortality
is probably not much more than was to be
expected of an army summoned hastily from
civil life into great encampments and called
upon to adjust itself with almost no period
of probation, to the requirements of military
service.
Probably not in the history of the world
has a war fraught with such momentous
consequences been attained with so small a
casualty list.