Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-11-06
CASUALTIES IN BATTLE.

fierce fighting as that which has recently occurred,
and that still going on, over in Europe, we my
never know, but this we have reason to believe:
The fighting has not been so destructive to life,
as the newspaper accounts have represented.
Of one thing, we are certain; The casualties
in long distance fighting are not SO great as when
the parties engaged are at close quarters.
In other words, improved small arms, do not
multiply fatalities,
Way back in the frst-half of the last century,
good, bright, witty Oliver Wendell Holmes made
an announcement which he called,
IAN axiom not be found in MontesqQieu.' or the
journals of Congress- to-wit:
"The race that shortens it's weapons, lengthens
its boundaries.
C~orollary. 1t was the Polish lance that left
Poland at last with nothing Of her own to bound.
Dropped from her n~eryeless grasp, the shat
tered spear. what business had Sarmatia to be
ighting for liberty with fifteen foot pole between
her and the breast Of her enemies? If she had
bat touched the old Roman and young America
Weapon (the gladins of the Romans and the Amer
lem Bowie-knife) and come. to close q~narters,
12re might have been a chance for her; but it
"uId have spoiled the best passages in The Pleas
ures of H0pe.''
Perhaps, if the war correspondents who com
Jjo for the news columns of the American press
ould be made to believe lying is improbable, .
we might get more truth as to what happens at the
front, and a clearer, fairer statement of the casual
ties Of The engagements along the fighting lines Of
the opposing forces on the Continents.
r. ,,o,, h. o~J 1a.l1.z. =. 1 I
never before, at any one time, saw so many Taen
in hostile array as may now be seen over there.
That the loss of life is, in the aggregate fear
ful in unquestionable, but it is far from the truth
to say the fighting is either the f~ercest or the most
deadly the world has ever witnessed.
THE BEACON does not doubt that many who
read these lines have been participants in battles
fought between the Union armies and those of the
Confederate states, during the Civil War, in which
the proportion of losses to the number of troops
actually engaged far exceeded any proportionate
losses actually sustained, anywhere or at any time
since h~ostilities commenced between the nations
now warning on the other side Of the Atlantic.
This is written hot to lessen the idea of anv
one as to the horrors of the horrible war now
pending in foreign lands,
Nor is it written in any spirit Of braggadocio
because the facts about to be recited occurred on
American soil, and in our own Southern land Nor
does the fact that the writer, and many of his liv-
ing friends and acquaintance, participated in some
one or more of the battles Of which mention is
about to be made cut any figure in the motive
prompting The recital.
The recital is made for the benefit of the youno.
err generation who read the BACON.
The Southern people iocrht for a cause thew
believed to be right, and lost.
But they did not lose or cease to ba.4,- until
they had made a record that fairly added to ,he
glory and renown of the American patriot soldier
And lest we forget'-and lest our sons and
daughters and those to come after them FORGET
let US keep in mind the following facts as to the
high endeavor and glorious courage of Southern
men IN the Civil War. The Illustration is taken
from records showing the losses of certain Missis-
sippi Regiments in certain battles:
AT Shiloh, out Of 425 present for duty. the Sivth
Mississippi lost 800 men, or 70.5 per cent of tbe
number engaged.
AT Sharpsburg, the Sixteenth Mississippi lost
OBJ per cent of the number present.
at Chlcamauga, the Twenty-ninth Nississinni
lost OF per cent Of the number lresenl, and if
propriety and space permitted, we could fill 4 col.
m with the heavy casualties of other regiments
In these same battles and of these same regiments
losses in other battles.
AT the battle of Franklin, November SOIL. 1854
in Featherstone's Brigade, the standard bearers Of
the Third, and the Twenty-second Mississjnni Roo.
iment planted their colors on the enemy's worls
and were wounded and captured with their co,ors
The color bearer Of the ThirtY-third lMississinnI
WAS hllei some fifteen nsrea fnn fbe ra,s,