Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1906-1908, 1906-06-22
Communicated.

If man enlists in time of war,
what are his chances of being killed ?
1t would take too much space to re-
cord the many heroic, and desperate
charges of the many organizations of
our late civil war, and it is not ne
cessary to name but few of the
crack regiments raised here in Wis
consin to give one an idea of the des-
perate fighting of the American sold
ier, when occasion requires it. At
Gettysburg the End Wisconsin went
into the fight with 320 officers and
men, and lost in killed and wounded
181 or 60 per cent of those engaged.
At Bethesda church, Va, four com-
panles of the Both Wisconsin had a
desperate fight. Went in with 24O
men and lost in killed and wounded
166 or, a percentage of of SO. When
one stops to think, the above losses
were in only one battle, and then,
considers the chances of three years
of constant marching and fighting one
is apt to think the chances of being
hit is pretty good. The battle losses
Of a regiment are always unevenly
distributed in the many engagements
in which it participates. There is
generally some one battle in which its
losses are unusally severe, some one
in which the men remember as their
Waterloo For instance, the 1st
Minnesota Infantry at Gettysburg.
1t was coming on the field alone, just
at the time General Hancock observed
confederate column advancing
through his line at point where
there were no Union troops to con
front them. In order to delay the
confederate advance until reinforce
ments could arrive, Hancock ordered
the 1st Minnesota alone, to charge
the enemy's line. This forlorn hope
moved forward with 259 officers and
men, and accomplished the purpose,
forced back the confederates and cap
tured two flags; but, when it was
over, only AZ men clustered around
their own colors while 211 lay dead
or wounded on the field, about 83 per
cent of those engaged. The extent
of loose will be better understood
when compared with losses in other
wars. Take for instance the charge
of the Light Brigade at Balaklava.
Lord Cardigan took in 673 officers and
men. They lost in killed and wound
ed 274, less than 81 per cent. The
heaviest loss in the Franco -Prussian
war occurred at Mars -la-Tour in the
| 10th German Infantry (3rd Westphal-
ian) which lost 49 per cent. The an
nails of war contain no parallel to this
charge of the 1st Minnesota. In its
desperate valor, complete execution,
successful result, and its sacrifice of
men in proportion to nun, Der engaged.
authentic history has no record with
which it can be compared yet these
that passed through that three years
and more of war know that many of
the Union regiments lest in some of
the many battles in which they v ere
engaged percentages that run up into
the sixties and even the seventies of
percent. Of those engaged. And what
of the Confederates? The official ac-
counts show that their losses We're
about the same as that of the Union
troops Where the Union regiments
suffered heavy losses, just in front of
them the ground was strewn with the
Grey. The civil war demonstrated
one thing to all the world, that the
American soldier is desperate fight
er: that he can give and take n o. {
punishment than any men in any am Y
of which We have any re-. ord Ard
We hope that wien he has occasion TO
fight again, il Will lot ne With his
brother.