Union gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1899-1900, 1900-04-13

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LOSSES GROW LESS.
! SOME LESSONS TAUGHT eY THE
ANGLO-sOER WAR.
Fatalities in Battle Apparently De-
crease-Com parison of Casualties In
Some oftheWorld's Greatest Conflicts.
strated some things about up-to-date
| fighting machines. One important fact
brought out is that. for creating ex-
| tensive cemeteries and making bloody
history, the old-fashioned fighters, with
their old-fashioned short-range weap-
ons, still hold the championship. Dy-
Mantle bombs and lyddite shells. bullet
sitting machines and long-range smoke
| less powder guns have, not feazed the
worlds record for carnage an iota.. The
civilized nations stand aghast at the
fall of few score of officers In a single
| tight as though 1t were an unheard of
| thing and that science had rendered
warfare too frightfully CORY for 1t to
| be tolerated among human beings.
Probably the almost bloodless victories
| of our navy at Manila Bay and Santiago
have led people to look for enormous
! gains on a minimum Of investment.
| These were marvellous exceptions. War
means fighting, and fighting in a war
worthy of the name means killing on
both sides.
The effectiveness of the long range
weapons used in the South African war
and the mortality which is looked upon
by the laymen as something excessive
attract the notice of military men who
have had actual experience In war.
Under the regime Of magazine rifles the
battle usually begins at 1900 or 1,6OO
yards, and may close down to LOO or
200 yards. At the latter range the fire
is supposed to be very effective. ArtiI-
lery is, of course, effective to break up
solid lines of infantry, but 1t is impos-
sible to make artillery fire effective
against troops who are covered behind
height, for instance, or by the lay of
the land or by rock and trees.
Gen. Sickles said recently that he
never had much faith In the effective
ness Of long-range weapons, for once
you teach troops that they can send
bullet mile, it takes away their in
trepidity. Napoleon III. demoraIized
his army by causing the soldiers to
think that the long-range breechloading
chassepot and the mitrailleuse would
defeat the enemy. 1t took all the elan
out of them and made them mere ma
chimes. The Germans, who, by the
way, also had their breechloading. long
range rifle, the needle gun, rushed to
close quarters, and the result was dis
astrous to the French.
Civil War Fatalities.
Gen. Nelson A.. Miles said, apropos of
the subject of modern improved weap-
ons and projectiles in relation to battle
field casualties, Losses diminish in
proportion as man-killing devices pro-
gress." This is fact, as shown by fig
ures, and is well known to close stu
dents Of warfare. Take, for instance.
the Federal attack upon the Confeder-
ate stone wall at Fredericksburg in
1862. The experience of the Seventh
New York (Steuben) regiment in that
charge is typical. The Seventh went
In after other brigades had been re-
pulsed in front of the stone wall SO that
it did not receive the fierce outburst of
Confederate fire, but in twenty minutes,
or at the outside thirty minutes, out of
twenty-five officers in the regiment ten
were killed and eight wounded, and ont
Of 45O men 24O were killed and wound
ed. All of these casualties came from
bullets fired from the stone wall. This
loss in officers killed was never exceed
ed put once in the whole civil war. and
that was in the case Of the Seventh
New Hampshire at the storming Of
Fort Wagner. In that affair eleven OF
Ecers of this regiment were killed out
right.
In the attack upon the stone wall the
Seventh Regiment fought with Han
cocks division. This division was
brought in as supporting column to
the initial attack. 1t consisted of eigh-
teen regiments, and there were nineteen
regimental commanders shot down and
disabled in one hour. Others were hit,
but kept the field. In the brigade of
Col. Caldwell. to which the Seventh
Regiment belonged, there were 116 off,
GERS present. sixty-two of whom were
killed or wounded. Gen. Hancock's di-
vision lost 2,O29 killed and wounded out
of 4,834 paper strength; that equals AZ
per cent. CaldwelPs brigade numbered
1887 on paper, and lost 952 killed and
wounded-that is to say, so per cent.
In a forlorn hope attack upon log
breastworks at Petersburg in 1854 the
First Maine heavy artillery carried S32
men in line and lost 632 killed and
wounded in rush that kept them un-
der fire not to exceed seven minutes.
At Gettysburg, during crisis, the First
Minnesota was called upon to charge
moving line of Confederates and cap
stnre its colors, In order to stagger the
l6 marching upon