Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1904-11-19
Thirteen-YearoJd Soldier.

ct was mustered into the service at
camp Chase, Lowell, on Sept. 3, 1861,
says storekeeper Edwin F. Gushing at
the navy yard, resident of Somer-
Vile, land, / was born at Dover, N.
H, on May 20, 1848, my age at the
time of muster was 13 years months
and days. My final discharge was
given me at Gallops island in Boston
harbor, on August 26. 1865, thus max
ing the official duration of my connec-
ton with the regiment just one week
less than four years.
"Of course says Mr.. Gushing,
there were a great many more boys
in the army. But the larger part of
these under-age youngsters got in dur
ing the last two years of the war.
and as began with carrying musket
and kept right on in that sort of duty
during the major part of the time l
was in the army, the claim has been
youngest soldier, with four years of
active service to my credit, who en-
listed from Massachusetts,.
Whether or not that is SO, and the
record may be duplicated several
times in this as in other states, am
satisfied" said Mr.. Cushing, "tnat 1
became a soldier full early enough,
and but for some hardening l had
Just received on a New Hampshire
fern, my experience in performing
the duties of full-fedged enlisted
man might have been much more diff
cult than it proved to be. Then again.
my regiment, the Twenty-sixth Massa-
ckusetts, did not see much real work
in the field for nearly two years and
the life in garrisoning forts and in
policing New Orleans gave me
chance to grow to the full measure
of a soldiers duty, SO that when we
reached Sheridan in the Shenandoah
valley, we were all a toughened lot OF
union defenders.
1.-The 'Twentysixth,' said Mr.. Cush-
ing was one of the Butler regiments
that went to Ship island with Gen.
Butler in November, 1861, our COM
mander being Col. E. F. Jones, who
led the old Sixth through Baltimore,
and Col Jones is now one of the
youngest men in the regimental asso
citation, of which body 1 am the secre-
:ary. The regiment was encamped at
Ship island until April, 1862, our bri-
gsde commander being Gen. ]. w
Phelps of Vermont, who was recalled
by President Lincoln for issuing those
Gen. Phelps being the first of the
union commanders to attempt the free
dom Of the slave in general orders"
Civil War Losses.
o. w. Norton, in a letter to the
Chicago Post, says: Many of your
readers are interested in the war be-
tween Russia and Japan, and follow
ing the accounts of the battles are ap-
palled by the great losses reported in
each of the armies. These losses
seem enormous, and the impression
is general that the world has not seen
before such desperate fighting. Com
paratively few of your readers are old
enough to remember the fighting in
our own civil war. and fewer still
have made any study of the statistics
of our own losses in battle. Modern
weapons, especially the small arms
with their small bullets, are much
more merciful than those used IN our
great war, when the bullets were one
inch long and ffty-three one-hun-
dredths inches in diameter, causing
fearful wounds. The papers report
that very large proportion of the
men wounded on both sides in the
present war have already recovered
paper accounts of the great slaughter
in these battles are usually exagger-
ated and the figures greatly reduced
by the official reports.
Perhaps your readers would be in
terested in some statistics of the civil
war, comparing them with reports of
battles in the East. The following fig
ures are taken from a book compiled
by William F. Fox, entitled Regimen
tai Losses in the Civil War" This
book is accepted as authoritative. and
by far the most reliable publication in
the statistics presented The figures
are not estimated Losses, nor taken
from the accounts of special CORE
spondents in the field. They are COM
piled from the muster rolls and official
reports on file in the War Depart
ment
The following table gives the per
centage of loss in several regiments
| in one battle to the number of men
engaged in that battle, ranging from
! 60 per cent to 81 per cent of the men
who entered any one battle. In the
table from which I copy these figures
there are a large number OF other
regiments in which the losses exceed
ed half the number engaged, but this
| list is long enough to show what stun
| our American soldiers were made of.