Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-02-14
THE BOOMING CANNON
RECiTALS OF CAMP AND BATTLE
INCIDENTS.
Survivors of the Rebellion Relate
Many Amusing and Startling Incl
dents of Marches, Camp Life, For
aging Experiences and Battles.


The death-rate for the last twelve
months among the Northern soldiers
who served in the Civil War has been
almost as high as 1t was during any Of
the four years of the great conflict.
Sixty thousand survivors of the great
struggle have died during the last year
five thousand month; one hundred
and sixty-tiye a day; more than one
every ten minutes.
If an army of sixty thousand men
should march up Broadway it would
take it, under the best conditions, ten
hours to pass a given point. Such an
army would be almost two-thirds as
large as the Union army that fought at
Gettysburg.
Ninety-three thousand Northern sol
dlers and eighty thousand Confederates
fought at Gettysburg. The list Of I'm
ion killed numbered two thousand eight
hundred and thirtyfour. Every seven
teen days, now, as many Northern vet
Grams die.
While, during the war, half a mil
lion died from wounds, disease, or
other causes, the number who actually
died i'll battle during tie entire four
years was only forty-four thousand two
hundred and thlrty-eight. In the last
nine months this number has been eX-
ceeded by the deaths of the veterans.
Of the Civil War veterans who are
on the pension rolls, four thousand now
die every month. In 1906 only little
over three thousand expired in the
same length of time
General Horatio C. King was asked
recently how many survivors there
would be in 1917
I'm ten years. exclaimed the gen
eral. I'm ten years we fellows will be
curiosities."
According to the last estimates,
about six hundred thousand of the one
million seven hundred thousand sol
diers that fought for the North are
now alive. The deathrate is increas-
ing with wonderful rapidity. How rap
idly it will continue to increase no one
can calculate with any degree Of GER
tanty. The ordinary method for such
calculations cannot be applied with
much success to the survivors of the
Union army.
Corporal James Tanner, who as Com
mander-ln-Chief of the Grand Army of
the Republic made study of the sub
ject early in 1907, believes the number
Of deaths will increase with even
greater rapidity. He said
Many estimates have been made by
men eminent in the medical profession
as to how much the average mans life
is shortened by his service as a SOL
der. None of them placed the figure
at less than ten years, and some of
them even went as high as fifteen.
Many men came out of the war appar-
emily In first-class condition only to
find with the lapse of years that they
had exhausted their powers of resist
ance while in the army. AS a result,
they fell premature victims to diseases
that would not have killed men who
never had inhaled the miaSma of
Southern swamps, or stood out on pick
ct post in sleet and rain"
If the present ratio of increase con-
tinues, the number of deaths three
years hence will be a hundred thou
sand year. The Pension Bureaus re-
port alone shows a death roll of more
than forty-five thousand for the last
twelve months, and there are many
thousands of survivors who are not
drawing pensions. The great majority
of the survivors who are less than six
ty-two years of age are not on the
pension lists, and there are thousands
who have not reached that age. The
average age of the Union soldiers when
they enlisted was only twenty-five
years. and In the last year of the war
thousands of boys of seventeen and
eighteen years joined the ranks. There
are also many thousands Of survivors
more than sixty-two years old who are
not on the pension lists, although they
are entitled to be.
How rapidly the remnant of the I'm
ion army is passing away is made even
more impressive UH Il SlduCC over TIE
death-roll of the officers. OF forty
eight thousand six hundred and seven
ty-one long-service officers alive at the
close Of the war, not more than ten
thousand are alive to-day. OF the one
hundred and twenty major generals of
volunteers who were living at the close
Of the war, there are now only six sur
yivors OF the three hundred and
seventy-seven brigadier generals living
at the close of the war, only thirty are
now living.
OF all the generals of the Army of
the Potomac only nineteen were alive
in 1907. Among these survivors are
Generals Howard, Sickles, Miles, Mer-
rift, Stahel, Ames, and Gregg. The
first two Howard and Sickles, are the
only generals now living who were of
great prominence in the war General
Howard lost an arm at Fair Oaks, and
General Sickles lost leg at Gettys
burg, where the brunt of the second