Henry County, Indiana - Chapter 6: Till-: Story Told by the Statistics, 1906

Chapter 6: Till-: Story Told by the Statistics

The Rebellion Records - - Comparis(jn of Federal and Confederate Strength in the Civil War - Estimate of Federal and Confederate Losses in the Civil War - Appalling Number of Deaths from Diseases - Statistics of the Mexican War - War of 1812-15 - Revolutionary War.

The United States government has published a great mass of records, both Federal and Confederate, relating to the Civil War. including reports of battles, military reports, correspondence, and documents of all kinds. The volumes, popularly known as the "Rebellion Records," are bulky and now number 130. These are the great storehouse of information relating to the war.

There is much diversity in the methods of citing these volumes. The official title printed on the back of each is : JVar of the Rebellion. Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. They are variously cited as Official Records, JVar Records, or Rebellion Records. To one not familiar with the method of citation there may also be difficultv in following references to volumes prior to the one now designated as ^'Serial Number 36" which, according to the original and cumbrous method of citation adopted by the government, was "Series i, Vol. XXIV, Part I." This and following volumes now have double labels, one designating the series, volumes and parts, and the other the serial number. The volumes subsequent to vol. 35 are usually referred to by the serial numbers ; those prior to that volume by series, etc.

A large amount of information is to be gathered from the muster-out rolls on file in the United States war department and in the archives of the different states. Indiana has published eight large volumes, compiled by Adjutant General Wm. H. H. Terrell, containing not only the muster-out rolls of the various military organizations contributed by the state during the Civil War, but also a brief history of each. Other northern states have issued similar publications, but few are so complete as those of Indiana. North Carolina has published a roster of the Confederate organizations contributed by that state. But many states are still much behind in such work ; some have not even printed their muster-rolls and the information contained in them can be found only in the unpublished records.

To make all this mass of facts available to the general reader requires long and laborious investigation and study. No single volume yet published gives such an exhaustive compilation of statistics as that of Colonel Fox, entitled Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, published in 1898. A smaller book, by Colonel Thomas L. Livermore, entitled Numbers and Losses in the Civil War in America, has recently passed to a second edition. It contains in a condensed form a great deal of information compiled from official records, the portion relating to the numbers and losses of the Confederates being especially valuable and interesting. Many statistics are also to be found in the Battles and Leaders of the Ciz'il War, published by the Century Company, and in Phisterer's Statistical Records of the Armies of the United States. Besides these, there are multitudes of histories of the war, of particular campaigns and battles, regimental histories, etc., in which statistics of various kinds may be found.

It is difficult to determine the exact number of men enlisted on each side. Some of the records have been lost ; others were imperfectly kept ; the enlistments covered various periods, and some men enlisted more than once. Reducing the whole number to a three-years' basis. Colonel Fox's estimate of the total number of men enlisted in the northern armies is 2,326,168 while that of Colonel Livermore is 1,556,678.

It has been much more difficult to ascertain the total number of enlistments in the Confederate armies. For a long time those speaking from the Confederate standpoint assumed that it did not exceed 600,000, but Colonel Livermore has shown that it was much larger - nearer 1,000,000.

Whatever the number may have been, the Confederates were as strong in men as the Federals at every stage of the war, for it must be remembered that in every campaign, except General Lee's invasion of Maryland and Pennsylvania and General Bragg's invasion of Kentucky, the Confederates were on the defensive, mostly behind breastworks, on the inner line of the circle, where one man was equal to two, three, sometimes four on -the outside line. This can be illustrated by the four-horse act in the circus ring, where the horse on the outside or nearest to the bank of the ring must gallop very fast, the horse next not so fast, the next horse still slower, while the fourth horse walks leisurely around. The last horse ^vas the Confederates, the other three represent the different positions occupied b\' the Federals.

At Vicksburg, General Grant had in the end more than one hundred thousand men, besides the navy on the Mississippi River. When General Pemberton surrendered, it was found that he had only a few less than thirty one thousand men. To make the siege effective, General Grant had to maintain a line from the Mississippi River near Haines' Bluff above Vicksburg to a point on the river below X'icksburg near where the Big Black River empties into the Mississippi, perhaps twelve miles in length, whereas the Confederate inner circle for the defense was a little more than one third of Grant's outer line. Aside from this the Navy had also to prevent the escape or withdrawal of General Pemberton's forces across the river into Louisiana.

At Appomattox, General Lee surrendered less than thirty thousand men to a Federal army of perhaps one hundred thousand men. It is true that between the time of Lee's departure from Petersburg and his surrender, he had lost fully one half of his men by capture and by their leaving for their homes, when they saw the end approaching, yet before he could be forced to surrender, he had to be surrounded and every avenue of escape cut off in a country with which he was ])erfectly familiar. His position might be likened to the center pole of the circus ring and the Federal position to that of the outside of the ring, which had to be

The Confederate soldiers were gallant men who well defended their positions and maintained their lines on many bloody fields, yet all that has been said or written as to their inferiority in men and muskets is nonsense of the rankest kind. General Robert E. Lee was a defensive general only as is conclusively shown by the fact that every time he attempted the offensive, he was badly worsted. If the Civil War produced a great, offensive Confederate general, the author does not recall his name. The disastrous offensive campaigns of General Lee in Maryland and Pennsylvania have been mentioned. When General Albert Sidney Johnston left his entrenchments at Corinth, Mississippi, to attack the Federal forces at Shiloh, which he found greatly unprepared, he lost his life and on the second day, his armv was forced to retire to their entrenchments twenty miles distant. When General Bragg, re-enforced by General E. Kirby Smith, made his offensive campaign in Kentucky in the Summer of 1862, the same ended in disaster and in the Fall of that year he was compelled to retreat into Tennessee. In the Atlanta Campaign, when General Hood left his entrenchments at Atlanta and marched to attack General Sherman's army, he also met with disaster and was soon forced to take refuge behind his entrenchments.

The author makes no pretensions to military knowledge or criticism but it is plain even to the civilian mind that the entire conduct of the war on the part of the Confederates should have been at all times defensive. In this they were at all points re-enforced by the negroes who were at the front in sufficient numbers to throw up fortifications and perform other manual labor and who were on the plantations to till the soil, reap the wheat, pick the cotton, plough the corn, making provisions for the army at the front and caring for the women and children of those who were in the army, and to their credit be it said there is no instance on record of their betrayal of the trust.

In the North, Grant was the great offensive general, not only of both armies but of the world. General Sherman was the great strategist, General Sheridan, the superb cavalry leader and General Thomas, the great defensive general, whose defense of Snodgrass Hill, having the inner line of the circle at Chickamauga, has bestowed upon him enduring fame as the "Rock of Chickamauga." In the South, Lee was the great general as long as he acted on the defensive ; General Joseph E. Johnston, the great strategist ; General Fitzhugh Lee, the best cavalry leader, with Generals Forrest, Stuart and Wheeler as "raiders" unequaled in the art of war. We obtain a clearer conception of the great armies in the last year of the war, of their composition and dimensions, from General Webb's statement of the organization and strength of the army with which General Grant entered upon the A^irginia campaign in April, 1864. He says :

"The total force under General Grant, including Burnside, was 4,409 officers and 114,360 enlisted men. For the artillery he had 9,945 enlisted men and 285 officers ; in the cavalry 1 1 ,839 enlisted men and 585 officers ; in the provost guards and engineers 120 officers and 3,274 enlisted men. His 118,000 men, properly disposed for battle, would have covered a front of twenty one miles, two ranks deep, with one third of them held in reserve; while Lee, with his 62,000 men, similarly disposed, would cover only twelve miles. Grant had a train which he

What became of the vast host enrolled in the Federal and Confederate armies ? The best estimate of losses furnished the author and one (5n which he relies the most is as follows :

"It is impossible to make an accurate statement of the losses on either side which will include those killed in battle or who died of wounds or disease, for the reason that so many soldiers died of wounds or disease incurred in the armv, after their discharge from the service. The best estimate for the Federal army is : killed in battles, died of wounds before and after discharge from the service, died of disease incurred in the service before and after discharge from the service, 500,000 of whom 200,000 may be set down as killed in battles and died of wounds before and after discharge from the service; Confederate army: losses from killed in battle, died of wounds before and after discharge from the service, died of disease incurred in the service before and after discharge from the service, 350,000 of whom 150,000 may be set down as killed in battle and died of wounds before or after discharge. This makes a total of practically 1,000,000 men who lost their lives in the Great Civil War."

It is difficult yet to form an adequate idea, from these figures, of the enormous number killed and died of wounds. The number in fact was much larger than that given by the statistics, for these include only those who died in service, while many died of wounds after their discharge from the army. Instances are not rare of men who died many years after the close of the war from wounds received in the service.

Persons not familiar with the statistics usually imagine that most of those who died in the service died on the battlefield or as the result of wounds received in battle. In fact the number of those who died from disease was nearly twice as large as the number killed in battle, or, exactly stated, 199,720. Colonel Fox states that of those who died from disease, one fourth died from fevers, principally typhoid ; one fourth from diarrhoea or other bowel trouble ; nearly one fourth from consumption or other pulmonary disease, and the remainder from various other diseases.

The statement of the number of deaths from disease is remarkable when considered in connection with the fact that, before being mustered in, a physical examination was made of the enlisted men, and that most of them were young, strong and robust; but it is not surprising when we consider the exposures to which they were subjected, the unhealthy camps, the poor diet, the bad water, and the great physical and mental strain to which they were subjected.

But appalling as are these statistics of the loss of life, they do not by any means tell the whole story of those who died from disease; for many of those discharged for disability died after reaching home, and of these the army records give no. account. The men who died either in or out of the army, from disease contracted in the service, as truly gave their lives for their country as did those who died on the field of battle. Nor do the statistics tell of all who lived, some of whom still live, with broken health and shattered constitutions.

The most interesting statistics, on the compilation of which the greatest labor has been expended, are those relating to the battles in which the armies were engaged. These give the number engaged, the number killed, wounded and captured, the number hit in every 1,000, the proportion of the number killed and wounded to the number engaged, and various other curious facts.

Theniagnitude of the Civil War will most clearly be perceived by comparing it with prior wars of this country. The statistics given in Spofiford's American Almanac for 1886 of the Mexican War and the War of 1812-15, are as follows:

Mexican War 1 846- 1 848 War 1812-1815

The whole number of regulars during the entire service can not be accurately given, but there were in service in February, 1815, 33,424. The whole number of militia enrolled during the war was 471,622 and the losses were:

The battles of the Revolution deservedly occupy a prominent place in history, but they seem insignificant when compared with those of the Civil War. The (official records of the Revolutionary battles, especially those relating to the militia, are very imperfect and it is impossible to reconcile the discrepancies in the unofficial accounts given of the numbers and losses.

The report of the Secretary of War, May 10, 1790, gives the number of troops from each of the thirteen states during the years 1775- 1783, including continental soldiers and militia. The largest number in service at any time was in the year i/yf), when it amounted to 89,651. In the last year, 1783, it was 13,476. The following ta1)le is probably sufficiently accurate for the purpose of making a comparison between the battles of the Revolution and those of the Civil War : This table does not include the naval engagements and omits some insignificant skirmishes and "affairs," and also various engagements between the Patriots or Whigs on one side and the Tories on the other, but it includes all the principal land battles of the Revolution and most of the minor engagements.

Statements of the numbers of killed, wounded and missing in some of the battles are given in Bancroft's History of the United States, but in the main the figures have been furnished by Colonel William F. Fox. author of Regimental Losses. These correspond substantially with those given in Dawson's Battles of the United States. I^ossing's Field Book of the Rc-i'ohttion, and Carrington's Battles of the Rei'olution.

Quebec. December 31, 1775. Americans, 900 engaged. Fifty killed, 150 wounded, 426 captured or surrendered; total, 626. British, 1,200 engaged. Five killed, 13 wounded; total, 18.

Moore's Creek Bridge, North Carolina, February 27, 1776. Americans, 1 killed, 1 wounded; total, 2. British, 10 killed, 20 wounded; total, 30.

Sullivan's Island, or Fort Moultrie, South Carolina, June 28, 1776. Americans, 12 killed, 25 wounded; total 37. British, 64 killed, 141 wounded; total, 205.

White Plains, New York, October 28, 1776. Americans, 1,600 engaged. Fifty nine killed, 65 wounded, 39 missing; total, 163. British, 2,000 engaged. Forty-eight killed, 163 wounded, 20 missing; total, 231.

Fort Washington, New York. November 16, 1776. Americans, 3,000 engaged. Fifty four killed. 93 wounded, 214 missing. 2,600 captured or surrendered; total, 2,961. British, 5,000 engaged. Seventy nine killed, 375 wounded, 6 missing; total, 460.

Trenton. New Jersey, December 26, 1776. Americans. 2,400 engaged. Two killed, 4 wounded; total. 6. British, 5,000 engaged. Thirty killed, 50 wounded, 918 captured or surrendered; total, 998.

Princeton, New Jersey, January 3. 1777. Americans, 3,000 engaged. Twenty killed, 40 wounded: total 60. British, 1.800 engaged. Eighteen killed, 58 wounded, 200 missing; total, 276.

Hubbardton, Vermont, July 4-7, 1777. Americans, 700 engaged. Thirty killed, 66 wounded, 228 missing; total. 324. British, 1,200 engaged. Fifty five killed, 148 wounded; total, 203.

Bennington, Vermont, August 16, 1777. Americans, 2,000 engaged. Thirty killed, 40 wounded: total, 70. British, 1,200 engaged. Two hundred seven killed, 744 captured or surrendered: total. 951.

Brandywine. Pennsylvania. September 11. 1777. Americans, 11,000 engaged. Two hundred killed. 800 wounded. 200 missing; total. 1,200. British, 18,000 engaged. Ninety killed. 488 wounded. 6 missing; total, 584.

Bemis Heights or Stillwater, New York. September 19, 1777. Americans engaged, 2,500. Sixty five killed, 218 wounded, 38 missing; total, 321. British, 3,000 engaged. Two hundred killed, 400 wounded: total, 600.

Paoli. Pennsylvania, September 20, 1777. Americans, 1,500 engaged. One hundred killed, 200 wounded, 80 captured or surrendered; total, 380. British. 4 killed. 4 wounded: total. 8.

Germantown. Pennsylvania, October 4, 1777. Americans, 11,000 engaged. One hundred fifty two killed, 521 wounded, 400 missing; total, 1,073. British, 15,000 engaged. One hundred killed, 400 wounded, 35 missing; total, 535.

I08 Hazzard S History Of Henry County

Fort Mercer, New Jersey, October 22, 1777. Americans, 450 engaged. Fourteen killed, 23 wounded, 1 missing; total, 38. British, 2,000 engaged. Seventy eight killed, 150 wounded; total, 228.

Wyoming, Pennsylvania, July 1-4, 1778. Americans, 400 engaged, two hundred twenty seven killed; total, 227. British and Indians, 1,000 engaged. Ten killed, 40 wounded; total, 50.

Quaker Hill, Rhode Island, August 29, 1778. Americans, 5,000 engaged. Thirty killed, 137 wounded, 44 missing; total, 211. British, 5,000 engaged. Thirty eight killed, 210 wounded, 12 missing; total, 260.

Savannah, Georgia, December 29, 1778. Americans, 900 engaged. Eighty killed, 200 wounded; 453 captured or surrendered; total, 733. British, 2,000 engaged. Three killed, 10 wounded; total, 13.

Sunbury, Georgia, January 9, 1779. Americans, 200 engaged. Four killed, 7 wounded, 189 captured or surrendered; total, 200. British, 2,000 engaged. One killed, 3 wounded; total, 4.

Beaufort or Port Royal, South Carolina, February 3, 1779. Americans, 8 killed, 22 wounded; total, 30. British, 15 killed, 52 wounded, 8 missing; total, 75.

Brier Creek, Georgia, March 3, 1779. Americans, 2,000 engaged. Twenty killed, 50 wounded, 189 captured or surrendered; total, 259. British, 1,800 engaged. Five killed, 11 wounded; total, 16.

Stono Ferry, South Carolina, June 20, 1779. Americans, 800 engaged. Thirty killed, 116 wounded, 155 missing; total, 301. British, 2,000 engaged. Twenty-six killed, 103 wounded, 1 missing; total, 130.

Stony Point, New York, July 16, 1779. Americans, 1,200 engaged. Fifteen killed, 83 wounded; total, 98. British, 600 engaged. Twenty killed, 74 wounded, 58 missing, 472 captured or surrendered; total, 624.

Paulus Hook, New Jersey, August 19, 1779. Americans, 400 engaged. Four killed, 16 wounded; total, 20. British, 208 engaged. Ten killed, 40 wounded, 158 captured or surrendered; total, 208.

Newtown or Chemung, New York, August 29, 1779. Americans, 4,500 engaged. Seven killed; 30 wounded; total, 37. British and Indians, 1,500 engaged.

Siege of Savannah, Georgia, September 23-October 18, 1779. Americans and French, 4,500 engaged. Two hundred twenty eight killed, 610 wounded; total, 838. British, 2,- 000 engaged. Forty killed, 63 wounded, 52 missing; total, 155.

Siege of Charleston, South Carolina, March 29-May 13. 1780. Americans, 3,900 engaged. Ninety-two killed, 148 wounded, 2,000 captured or surrendered; total, 2,240. British, 9,000 engaged. Seventy six killed, 189 wounded; total, 265.

Springfield, New Jersey, June 23, 178U. Americans, 3,000 engaged. Thirteen killed, 61 wounded, 9 missing; total, 83. British, 5,000 engaged.

Rocky Mount, South Carolina, July 30, 1780. Americans, 600 engaged. Four killed, 10 wounded; total, 14. British, 5o0 engaged. Ten killed, 10 wounded; total, 20.

Hanging Rock, South Carolina, August 6, ITSO. Americans, 60u engaged. Twelve killed, 41 wounded; total, 53. British, 500 engaged. Twenty three killed, 40 wounded, 26 captured or surrendered; total, 269.

Camden, South Carolina, August 16, 1780. Americans, 3,000 engaged. Two hundred killed, 500 wounded, 300 missing, 1,000 captured or suri-endered; total, 2,000. British, 2,200 engaged. Sixty eight killed, 245 wounded, 11 missing; total, 324.

Fishing Creek, South Carolina, Augtist 18, 1780. Americans. 30 killed, 120 wounded, 300 missing; total, 450. British, 9 killed, 6 w^ounded; total, 15.

King's Mountain, South Carolina, October 7, 1780. Americans, 900 engaged. Twenty eight killed, 60 w'ounded; total, 88. British, 1,100 engaged. Two hundred twenty five killed, 263 wounded, captured or surrendered, 718; total, 1,206.

Cowpens, South Carolina, January 17, 1781. Americans, 900 engaged. Twelve killed, 60 wounded; total, 72. British, 1,100 engaged. One hundred killed, 229 wounded, 500 captured or surrendered; total, 829.

Guilford Court House, South Carolina, March 15, 1781. Americans, 4,404 engaged. Seventy eight killed, 183 wounded, 1,046 missing; total. 1,307. British, 2,400 engaged. One hundred fifty nine killed, 331 wounded, 25 missing; total, 515.

Hobkirk's Hill, South Carolina, April 25, 1781. Americans, 1,500 engaged. Nineteen killed, 115 wounded, 136 missing; total, 270. British, 950 engaged. Thirty eight killsd, 200 wounded, 20 missing; total, 258.

Fort Ninety Six, South Carolina, June 19, 1791. Americans, 1,000 engaged. Forty killed, 115 wounded; total, 155. British, 550 engaged. Tw^enty five killed, 60 wounded; total, 85.

Jamestown Ford, Virginia, July 6, 1781. Americans, 20 killed, 80 wounded, 18 missing; total, 118. British, 20 killed, 55 wounded; total, 75.

Fort Grlswold, Connecticut, September 6, 1781. Americans, 150 engaged. Ninety five killed, 55 wounded; total, 170. British. 800 engaged. Forty eight killed, 145 wounded; total, 193.

Eutaw Springs, South Carolina, September 8, 1781. Americans, 2,000 engaged. One hundred fourteen killed, 262 w^ounded. 32 missing; total, 408. British, 2,800 engaged. Eighty five killed, 351 wounded, 257 missing; total, 693.

Yorktown, Virginia, September 28-October 19, 1781. Americans, 16,000 engaged. Seventy two killed, 202 wounded; total, 274. British, 8,000 engaged. One hundred fifty six killed. 326 w^ounded, 70 missing. 7,073 captured or surrendered; total, 7,625.

Summary

It would reqtiire too much space to give the numbers and losses in each of the battles of the Civil War. Those stated in the following table, compiled mainly trom Livermore's Xiiiiibcrs and Losses, are for battles in which the total engaged V. as 50.000 or more.

The ^s^reatest loss of general officers in any single engagement was that of the Confederates in the battle of Franklin, in which one major general and fonr brigadier generals were killed, one major general and five brigadier generals were wonnded, and one brigadier general was captured. This was most remarkable, considering that the total number of Confederates engaged was only 26,897.

Neither the number of men lost in a particular battle nor the number lost by a particular regiment gives us an accurate idea of the dangers to which the participants were exposed, unless we know the proportion of the killed and wounded to the number engaged. Many regiments lost a greater per cent of killed and wounded in some small battle or skirmish than others lost in greater ones.

The charge of the Light Brigade has been celebrated in prose and verse as the most striking exhibition in history of men marching into the very jaws of death. The Light Brigade lost 36.7 per cent, in killed and wounded. Colonel

Vox gives a list of 63 Federal regiments and 52 Confederate regiments, each of which in a single engagement lost over 50 per cent, in killed, wounded, and missing; 24 of the Federal regiments lost over 60 per cent. Two Federal regiments, the 1st Minnesota and the 141st Pennsylvania, and two Confederate regiments, the ist Texas and the 2^1 st Georgia, each lost at Gettysburg over 75 per cent. In a single charge at Gettysburg, the 1st Minnesota took into action 262 officers and men and lost 50 killed and 174 wounded; seventeen officers, including the colonel, lieutenant colonel, major, and adjutant, being among the number. In the same battle the 26th North Carolina of the Confederate army went into the first day's fight with 800 men, losing 86 killed and 502 wounded; it participated on the third day in the charge of Pickett's division with 216 men; of these only 80 were left for duty the next day. The 5th New Hampshire, during its four-years' service, lost 295 men killed in action or died of wounds, the killed including 18 officers and 277 enlisted men. The Federal regiment that lost the greatest number, though not the greatest per cent., of killed and died of wounds, was the ist Maine Heavy Artillery, recruited for artillery service but serving as an infantry regiment. Of its total enrollment of 2,202, it lost 423 in killed and died of wounds, or 19.2 per cent., all these losses occurring during a period of about ten months.

Undoubtedly there were other regiments. Federal and Confederate, the statistics of which are imperfect, whose losses were fully fifty per cent., or perhaps more ; but the average per cent, of killed and died of wounds was far below that of the regiments above mentioned. It was about 4.7 per cent, of Colonel Fox's total of 2,326,168, and about 7 per cent, of Colonel Livermore's total of 1,556,698.

The figures given in the foregoing tables do not fully represent the fighting in campaigns such as those of Grant and Sherman in the Spring and Summer of 1864. The battles beginning with the first day's fight in the Wilderness, May 3, 1864, and ending with that of Spottsylvania, May 12, were really parts of one continuous battle in which the Federal loss, according to Colonel Livermore, was 26,815 in killed and wounded, and 4,183 missing. So the battles of the Atlanta campaign in the month of May, 1864, were really parts of one continuous battle in which the Federals, with an effective force of 110,123, lost in killed and wounded 10,528 and in missing, 1,240, and the Confederates, with an effective force of 66,089, lost in killed and wounded 9,187. Even these figures do not convey an accurate idea of the desperate fighting and the- enormous losses in the last year of the war. Charles A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, in his "Recollections of the Civil War," p. 211, has compiled from the official reports a table showing the losses in the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James in Grant's Richmond campaign, from the beginning. May 3, 1864, to the surrender at Appomattox, April 9, 1865. It shows the following totals :

Some idea may be formed of these enormous losses if we consider that they far exceed the great army with which Sherman began his Atlanta campaign, and that they more than twice outnumber the army with which Rosecrans started on his Chattanooga campaign. They also outnumber all the American troops engaged in the whole of the Mexican War. And yet these figures represent only the Federal losses and do not take into account those of the Confederates.

The magnitude of the battles of the Civil War, compared with those of the Revolution, will be seen by comparing the following summary of the losses at Chickamauga and Gettysburg with the summary given of the Revolutionar\- losses.

Losses At Chickamauga Losses At Gettysburg

The statistics give us only a hint of the development of a citizen into a soldier, and, to understand this fully, we must read such books as General Humphreys's Virginia Campaign and General Cox's Atlanta Campaign. These are not mere eulogies, such as are found in regimental histories and memorial dav addresses. They are careful statements of facts by men fully conversant with them. They tell of such heroic fighting on both sides as was never surpassed in an\- war in the world. The men of the North and the South that fought in 1864 in the Richmond and Atlanta campaigns were veteran soldiers, whose training and experience had raised them to the highest grade of efficiency. We read of repulses but of few panics. The men on both sides went where they were ordered, .stood as long as they were commanded to stand, and retreated only when it was apparent to their officers that to stand longer would result in useless slaughter.