Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1918-10-19
Has Germany Forgotten9
Samuel Abbott in Philadelphia Ledger.

Phil Sheridan was with the Prussian army in
| 1870 as military representative of the United
| States As the French surrendered at Metz he
watched the proceedings from his saddle at the
! side of Prince Charles II any man then living
was qualified to pass Judgment on the hghting
| quality OF the victorious German army It was
that same fiery Phil, who but FIVE years before
| had led thousands of union saoers i'll their VIC
| torious sweep around Richmond. 1t is on rec
ord that Sheridan turned to Prince Charles and
said: Give me two divisions OF the Sixth
corps (Sedgwick's) of the Army of the Potomac
and could cut my way out through your Prus-
sian army"
Has Germany forgotten3 Certain recent
events precipitated by American boys i'll khaki
| on the French front should cause tie German
general staff to turn to pages of its war histories
and refresh his memory as to the lighting stuff
that was in our fathers of the Blue and the Gray.
For the backbone OF our army today is the col
ective spine of the boys who are lineal descend
ants of an infantry that ranked among the very
best that ever marched ard fought on this globe.
That is pretty tall stat .ment and we will but
tress it with facts. Here are the percentages of
the Casualties of the victors in six Of the worlds
severest battles fought on European soil:
Zorndorf, l7S8-Prussians and Austrlans, 81
per cent.
Eylau,. lS07-French and Russians, % per
cent.
DeEOQUlO, IOlL-TTelCn anu NuSSldNS, ~ per
cent.
Waterloo, 1Sl5-Allies and French, 20 per
cent
Viove, lS7O-Prussians and French, % per
| cent
Pevna, 1S77-Russans and Turks, s per
cent
Since Eylau no single battle in history has
equaled in percentage Of losses the American
casualties of Chickamauga. We give the per-
centages of losses of the vctors in three great
civil war battles:
Antietanl, q per cent; Gettysburg, 20 per
cent, and Chckamauga, Il per cent
One should note as side light, an important
one, that the typical European struggle of ma jor
Importance usually ended in the complete rout
OF the vanqushed army. The flight of Napol-
cons army from Waterloo is the classic exanl-
pie. In Our civil war, after Bull Run, there was
virtually no retreat of beaten force i'll confu-
sion. Lee was ready, almost willing, to invite
a union attack after Gettysburg, either on July
4 or 5, 1868. Time and time again defeated
federal confederate army stood in its tracks
ready for more punishment, sullen and awfully .
dangerous Hilary Herbert, an old confederate,
said that the mental attribute of the Army
of the Potomac that aroused the admiration of
the Army of the Northern Virginia was its
steadfast courage under defeat, its willingness
to try and try again to storm impregnable in
trenchments, to fight to the last bayonet thrust,
although for months it did not know what to
expect from its leader or who that leader would
be on the morrow.
The men of the Blue and the Gray were
SHOCK troops" We see with us today few
white-haired remnants of those wonderful boys
OF lS6l-6S and we forget that l,l5l ,458 enlist
ments in the union army were mere strpngs
l8 years old. But what terrific fighters those
boys became in the red ordeal of war! An hstor-
ian of the battle OF the wilderness tells us that
the average age of the thousands OF soldiers that
lay dead and dying-Blue and Gray side by side
during that mournful night in "a was under
20 years. They were shock troops" for they
knew but one way to fight, and that was at close
quarters, after the roar of musketry, with bay
onets and dubbed rifles. An Engishman, Capt.
Cecil Battine, Fifteenth Kings Hussars. said
few years ago, The Americans still hold the
worlds record for hard fighting"
Has Germany forgotten? We invite it to
turn to the records of losses in battle suffered
by federal and confederate regiments:
The First Minnesota lost 81 per cent of its
men on the second day at Gettysburg in Is
minutes And, kaiser, take notice, this loss rep
resents killed and wounded. There was no man
missing"
The Twentieth Massachusetts,, at Fredericks-
burg lost 6S.4 per cent in one day, and again
there was no report missing.
The First Maine heavy artillery at Peters
burg lost over, 70 per cent of its men in seven
minutes of fighting.
The l4lst Pennsylvania at Gettysburg, lost
76 per cent of its roster OF officers and men
Now for the boys in gray. All four of the
percentages that follow represent actual losses
in killed and wounded, with not man miss
ing:
First Texas Antetam, 823 per cent.
TWENTY (reoroia Map,sSac IL oar vent
:. Twenty North Carolina Gettysburg.
III per cent
Sixth Mississippi, Shiloh, 7O.5 per cent.
10 give one an idea of the savage intensity
OF the fighting during the closing year of the
0civil war it is recorded that Lee, with $4,000
tomac before he was crushed into submission
Let us go back to July, 1868, and imagine
great northern daily appearing with the casu.
atty lists Of Mead's army alone with no mention
of Lees sacrifice at Gettysburg. 1t would re-
quire all the columns Of the Ledger to give the
story Of heroism? And those furious weeks in
May and June, 1864, when for days the two arm
les were locked in bitter battle near Richmond
days that shape themselves in the words, "The
Wilderness" Spottssylvania, Gold Harbor,"
when Swallowed in the names of the boys in
blue and in gray that went down never to rise
again, should make the SILVER of fear chill the
marrow of the most Prussian of all the Prus-
slams. For America repeats itself under the
Stars and Stripes.
Germany may have forgotten the years of
l8ol-o5. But the sons of the men who shook |
hands at Appomattox, will write a chapter in the
history of the world that future Prussians will |
read with awe.
Crumbllng Walls of Bigotry
Palestnan war dispatches a few days ago