thea_447
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This is a long article and will be posted probably in two parts:
Last paragraph: Goosepimples for you Bama Boys guaranteed ...
Losses In The Battles Of The Civil War And What They Mean
Statistics of losses in battles do not furnish an unfailing test of
courage. Mistakes of officers, unavoidable surprises -these, now and then,
occasion losses that soldiers did not knowingly face, and there are
sometimes other reasons why the carnage in a particular command in this
battle or that does not with accuracy indicate steadfast bravery. Such
statistics, however, as all military experts agree, do tell a graphic
story, when exceptional instances are not selected.
Colonel Dodge, in his " Bird's-Eye View of Our Civil War," exhibits
statistics showing the percentage of losses in the most notable battles
fought since 1745, and from them deduces this conclusion, "It thus appears
that in ability to stand heavy pounding, since Napoleon's Waterloo
campaign, the American has shown himself preeminent." Colonel Dodge
would have been justified in going much further. Waterloo itself,
the most famous of the world's battles, does not show such fighting
as Americans did at Sharpsburg (Antietam), Gettysburg, or Chickamauga.
In "Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War," by Lieutenant
Colonel G. F. R. Henderson, a British military expert, is a complete list
of killed and wounded in great battles from 1704 to 1882, inclusive. Since
Eylau, 1807, there has been no great battle in which the losses of the
victor-the punishment he withstood to gain his victory-equal the
twenty-seven per cent. of the Confederates in their victory at
Chickamauga.
The Henderson tables give the losses of both sides in each battle,
but indicate the percentage of those suffered by the victors only. These
show fighting losses. In losses by a defeated army,' those received in
retreating cannot be separated from those received in fighting. If,
however, a defeated army is not routed, but retires, still in fighting condition,
and the foe is so crippled that he cannot make effective pursuit, as was the
case at Chickamauga, or if the defeated army does not leave the field at
all, until, say, twenty-four hours after the battle, as was the case with
the Confederates at Sharpsburg and Gettysburg, the losses on both sides
are to be counted as fighting losses, and their percentage is a fair measure
of " capacity to stand pounding."
Gaged, then, by this standard, which for large armies in a great
battle is absolutely fair, Waterloo is eclipsed by Gettysburg; Gettysburg
is eclipsed by Sharpsburg, and Sharpsburg eclipsed by Chickamauga.
Here are some of Colonel Henderson's percentages, which tell the
story, the percentage of the Federal losses at Chickamauga being
calculated from Henderson's figures. At Waterloo, the victors' loss was
twenty per cent. At Gettysburg, the victors lost also twenty per cent.
But, at Waterloo, the French army dissolved; at Gettysburg, the
Confederates held to their position nearly all the following day,
and the majority of the Confederates did not know they had been
of killed and wounded in great battles from 1704 to 1882, inclusive. Since
Eylau, 1807, there has been no great battle in which the losses of the
victor-the punishment he withstood to gain his victory-equal the
twenty-seven per cent. of the Confederates in their victory at
Chickamauga.
The Henderson tables give the losses of both sides in each battle,
but indicate the percentage of those suffered by the victors only. These
show fighting losses. In losses by a defeated army,' those received in
retreating cannot be separated from those received in fighting. If,
however, a defeated army is not routed, but retires, still in fighting condition,
and the foe is so crippled that he cannot make effective pursuit, as was the
case at Chickamauga, or if the defeated army does not leave the field at
all, until, say, twenty-four hours after the battle, as was the case with
the Confederates at Sharpsburg and Gettysburg, the losses on both sides
are to be counted as fighting losses, and their percentage is a fair measure
of " capacity to stand pounding."
Gaged, then, by this standard, which for large armies in a great
battle is absolutely fair, Waterloo is eclipsed by Gettysburg; Gettysburg
is eclipsed by Sharpsburg, and Sharpsburg eclipsed by Chickamauga.
Here are some of Colonel Henderson's percentages, which tell the
story, the percentage of the Federal losses at Chickamauga being
calculated from Henderson's figures. At Waterloo, the victors' loss was
twenty per cent. At Gettysburg, the victors lost also twenty per cent.
But, at Waterloo, the French army dissolved; at Gettysburg, the
Confederates held to their position nearly all the following day,
and the majority of the Confederates did not know they had been
defeated there until after the war.
At Sharpsburg, their victory cost the Federals not twenty, but
twenty-three per cent., and the Confederates held fast to their position
all the next day. At Chickamauga, their victory cost the Confederates
twenty-seven per cent., and the Federals, inflicting this loss,
retreated; but General Thomas, the " Rock of Chickamauga,"
still held fast to prevent pursuit, and Rosecrans' army was ready
to fight the next day. At Waterloo, the entire loss in killed and
wounded, of the French, was thirty-one per cent. This
loss utterly destroyed the army. The Federals at Chickamauga
withstood a loss practically the same-thirty per cent -and still
successfully defied the Confederates to attack them in Chattanooga.
The percentage of loss in battle by an entire army is, of course,
obtained by including all present--those participating slightly,
or even not at all, as well as those who bore the brunt of the fight.
Bearing this in mind, the reader will note to the credit of these
troops that the dreadful losses sustained at Sharpsburg by the Fifteenth
Massachusetts, Twenty-eighth Pennsylvania, Ninth New York. Twelfth
Massachusetts, First Delaware, and other regiments; at Stone's River,
December 31, 1862, by the Eighteenth United States Infantry, Twenty-second
Illinois, and other regiments; at Gettysburg, by the Twenty-fourth
Michigan, One hundred and eleventh New York, First Minnesota,
One hundred and twenty-sixth New York, and One hundred and fifty-first
Pennsylvania, were all suffered while the Federals were winning
victories-suffered fighting, not in retreating.
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