A FEW FACTS FROM HISTORY.
The Southern States furnished the Federal army with the following:
White troops 276,439
Negroes 178,975
Foreigners 444,586
Total 800,000
Foreigners in the Federal army were as follows:
Germans 176,800
Irish 144,200
British-Americans 53,500
English 45,500
Other foreigners 74,900
Total 494,900
The Federal army in its report for May, 1865, had present for duty
1,000,576, while it had present equipped 602,598. The Confederate
army in its report for April 9, 1865, had 174,223 paroled and 98,802
in Federal prisons, making a total of 272,025.
As the armies stood at time of surrender:
Federal soldiers 1,000,576
Confederate soldiers 272,025
Total enlistment of Federal army 2,778,304
Total enlistment of Confederate army 600,000
1. The State of New York with 448,850 and Pennsylvania with 337,936
Union soldiers aggregated 768,635 soldiers and outnumbered the entire
Confederate army.
2. Illinois with 259,092, Ohio with 313,180, and Indiana with 196,363
soldiers aggregated 768,635 soldiers and outnumbered the Confederate
army.
3. New England with 363,162 and the 316,424 Union soldiers of
the slave States aggregated 679,586 soldiers and outnumbered the
Confederate army.
4. The States west of the Mississippi River, exclusive of Missouri
and the other Southern States, enlisted 319,563, Delaware, New
Jersey, and the District of Columbia 105,632, and the negro troops
enlisted in the Southern States and not before counted were
99,337--an aggregate of 514,532 soldiers.
These facts, taken from the war records, show that there were
four Union armies in the field, each of which was as large as the
Confederate army.
The following list of killed and wounded (exclusive of prisoners)
in the nineteen great battles of the war was compiled by Lieut. Col.
G. F. R. Henderson, C.B., in his most excellent book of two volumes
styled “Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War.” I am glad that
some neutral party has so truthfully recorded the facts as they are.
He came to the United States after the war in order to investigate
and write for the benefit of an impartial public a true history.
He was given every facility for that purpose and had access to the
reports of both sides, with the personal interviews of both Federal
and Confederate officers who had participated from the beginning to
the close of the war. After much labor and time spent, he made the
following report, touching the killed and wounded of both armies
in the battles named, which report received the full indorsement of
Field Marshal the Right Honorable Viscount Wolseley, commander in
chief of the Army of Great Britain. Taken, then, as such, it should
be accepted as impartial and true.
LIST OF KILLED AND WOUNDED (NOT INCLUDING PRISONERS) IN THE
GREAT BATTLES OF THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES, 1861 TO 1865.
─────────────────┬────┬──────────────┬────────────────────┬───┬───┐
│ │ NUMBER OF │ │ │ │
Name │ │TROOPS ENGAGED│ KILLED AND WOUNDED.│ │Pct│
of │ ├──────┬───────┼──────┬──────┬──────┤Tot│ of│
Battle. │Date│ Cfd │ Fed │ Cfd │ Fed │ Total│Pct│Vic│
─────────────────┼────┼──────┼───────┼──────┼──────┼──────┼───┼───┤
Manassas* │1861│18,000│ 18,000│ 1,969│ 1,584│ 3,553│ 9│ 10│
Perryville │1862│16,000│ 27,000│ 3,200│ 3,700│ 6,900│ 16│···│
Shiloh │1862│40,000│ 58,000│ 9,000│12,000│21,000│ 20│ 20│
Seven Pines │1862│39,000│ 51,000│ 6,134│ 5,031│11,165│ 12│ 9│
Gaines Mill* │1862│54,000│ 36,000│ 8,000│ 5,000│13,000│ 14│ 14│
Malvern Hill │1862│70,000│ 80,000│ 5,500│ 2,800│ 8,300│ 5│ 3│
Cedar Run* │1862│21,000│ 12,000│ 1,314│ 2,380│ 3,694│ 11│ 6│
Second Manassas* │1862│54,000│ 73,000│ 9,000│13,000│22,000│ 17│ 16│
Sharpsburg* │1862│41,000│ 87,000│ 9,500│12,410│21,910│ 17│ 23│
Fredericksburg* │1862│70,000│120,000│ 4,224│12,747│16,971│ 8│ 6│
Chickamauga* │1863│71,000│ 57,000│18,000│17,100│35,100│ 27│ 25│
Chancellorsville*│1863│62,000│130,000│10,000│14,000│24,000│ 12│ 17│
Gettysburg │1863│70,000│ 93,000│18,000│17,000│37,000│ 24│ 20│
Chattanooga │1863│33,000│ 60,000│ 3,000│ 5,500│ 8,500│ 8│ 9│
S. River or │1862│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
M’boro* │ -63│33,000│ 60,000│ 9,500│ 9,000│18,500│ 24│ 20│
Wilderness* │1864│61,000│118,000│11,000│15,000│26,000│ 14│ 18│
Spottsylvania │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
C. H.* │1864│50,000│100,000│ 8,000│17,000│25,000│ 16│ 16│
Cold Harbor* │1864│58,000│110,000│ 1,700│10,000│11,700│ 6│ 3│
Nashville │1864│39,000│ 55,000│ 3,500│ 3,000│ 6,500│ 6│ 5│
─────────────────┴────┴──────┴───────┴──────┴──────┴──────┴───┴───┘
(Cfd ＝ Confederate; Fed ＝ Federal; Vic ＝ Victor)
* Indicates battles won by Confederates.
Confederates victorious, 12; Federals victorious, 7.
It will be seen from the report that the per cent of casualties
(killed and wounded) at Chickamauga is greater than any other battle
of the war--to wit: twenty-seven per cent. The next in order are
Gettysburg and Murfreesboro, with twenty-four per cent each. It
will be remembered, too, that at Gettysburg the combined armies
engaged aggregated 163,000, while at Chickamauga the combined armies
engaged numbered 128,000. The killed and wounded at Gettysburg
numbered 37,000, while at Chickamauga the killed and wounded numbered
35,100--a difference of 35,000 in the aggregated strength of the two
armies and only a difference of 1,900 in the number of killed and
wounded. Gettysburg and Chickamauga were the two great battles of the
war, as I have before remarked, the one in the East and the other in
the West. In these engagements the Confederate army had its greatest
strength and enthusiasm. After these two battles they fought with
some degree of success to the last. The North continued to gather
strength, while the South had no resources to draw upon. “The cradle
and the grave” had made their liberal contributions, and for the
soldier who fell in action there was no one to supply his place.
In the table I have indicated the Murfreesboro--or Stones River, as
it is called by the Federals--battle as a victory for the Confederates
when it should have been for the Federals. General Bragg gained a
great victory at Murfreesboro on the 30th of December, 1862; but after
two days’ inactivity and failing to follow it up, he assaulted the
fortified position of the Federals with a single division, that of
General Breckenridge, who, after a gallant fight, was repulsed with
heavy loss on the 1st of January, 1863. That night General Bragg
withdrew his army and retreated to Shelbyville. Technically speaking,
Colonel Henderson is correct, for the Federals had won every portion
of the field at the termination of the battle.
I do not like to criticize any portion of what Colonel Henderson says
in his report, but I am of the opinion that he is in error when he
places the Confederate forces at Chickamauga as larger than those of
the Federal army. I will do him the justice to say that I have heard
the same claimed by Northern writers. The Confederate soldiers claim
that the Federal army was numerically the largest. They account for
the mistake in this way: It was well known that General Longstreet
was ordered to Chickamauga to reënforce General Bragg with his large
veteran corps from General Lee’s army in Virginia, numbering some
twenty or twenty-five thousand. But General Longstreet did not reach
the field until the night of the 19th, and participated in the last
day’s fight, the 20th of September. Only two of his divisions reached
there in time to take part in the last day’s battle--the divisions
of Generals McLaws and Hood, numbering less than ten thousand. At a
consultation had at General Bragg’s headquarters on the night of the
19th the Confederate army was divided into two wings, General Polk
to command the right wing and General Longstreet to command the left
wing. More than two-thirds of the left wing were troops of the Army
of Tennessee and were on the field before General Longstreet arrived.
These facts show that the two armies were about equal numerically;
if anything, the Federal army was the larger. The change of figures
would adjust the relative strength of each army. Anyhow, there was
honor and glory won at Chickamauga--enough to satisfy every American
soldier that took part in that great battle. It was the deadliest
battle not only of our War between the States, but stands without a
parallel in all modern warfare. The great battle between Wellington
and Napoleon at Waterloo, fought in 1815, falls short of it three
per cent in killed and wounded, when the stake was the destiny of all
Europe.
Since the war the government of the United States has purchased
the entire battle field of Chickamauga (thousands of acres) and
transformed what was a rugged and immense growth of timber and
undergrowth into a beautiful national park, checking every point
of interest with smooth roadways, and preserving at the same time
every object as it appeared during the battle. A military post
has been established there, which the government is now about to
enlarge at great expense. Troops from all the States, both North and
South, participated in the battle of Chickamauga. Most of them have
erected imposing monuments to their respective soldiers. A forest of
monumental spires is to be seen in any direction one may travel over
the great field of battle, every one of which, as it lifts its tall
shaft to the skies, tells of the soldiers who fought there, whether
they wore the blue or the gray.
As I have said before, the Confederate armies never enlisted more
than six hundred thousand soldiers from first to last. I have said
also that the Federal writers have denied this and claimed more,
which under the circumstances they are more than anxious should be
the fact. I still insist that the Confederate estimate--to wit, six
hundred thousand--is approximately correct, as is shown in the June
(1912) number of the _Confederate Veteran_ in a well-digested and
carefully prepared paper written by Rev. R. H. McKim, which most
convincingly confirms these figures. President Tyler, of William and
Henry College, writing on “The South in the Building of the Nation,”
says: “In round numbers the South had on her muster rolls from first
to last about six hundred thousand soldiers.” This estimate agrees
with that of Adjutant General Cooper, whose duty it was to keep an
accurate roster of the Confederate armies during the entire war;
that of Dr. Bledsoe, Vice President Alexander H. Stephens, Gen.
Jubal A. Early, and Gen. John Preston; also with that of many other
distinguished and reliable writers I could mention who confirm this
estimate of the strength of the Confederate armies.
Every paroled soldier at Appomattox under General Lee on the 9th of
April, 1865, or under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston at Greensboro, N. C.,
on the 26th of April, 1865, seventeen days afterwards, knew that he
was fighting an enemy that outnumbered him from six or twelve to one.
The Confederate paroled list, as well as the morning’s reports of
the Federal army, will show that this is an indisputable fact, and
it should go down in history at these figures.
The latest United States census report made prior to the breaking
out of the War between the States shows that the Northern States had
a white population about five times as large as that of the Southern
States. By the offering of large bounties, the United States enlisted
four hundred and ninety-four thousand foreigners. Many of these at
the close of the war never claimed citizenship here, but returned
to the land of their nativity. Since the passage of the pension
laws they have been paid millions of dollars by the United States.
After nearly half a century the survivors are still drawing their
pensions--mercenary soldiers in fact and in deed.
The Southern States furnished the Northern army 276,439 white troops
and 178,975 colored troops. These are well-authenticated facts and
fully justify Southern people for the insistence they make of the
comparative strength of the two armies during the war.
We claim that no army has ever fought so valiantly as the Confederate
army. All history fails to show a parallel case. For four years they
maintained the unequal contest, fighting more and greater battles,
conducting longer campaigns, and enduring more privations than were
ever before recorded. The South claims this much, though in the
contest they lost all save honor.
“No nation rose so white and fair,
Or fell so pure of crimes.”
The Confederate cavalry regiments for three winters slept in the open
air, without tents, before a log-heap fire. In case of rain or sleet,
they would get some forked limbs, place a pole between the forks,
put rails on the ground, resting them on the pole, and spread an
oilcloth or blanket from the pole down to the ground. The result
was a splendid “lay-out” (or “lay-in”), especially with the log-heap
fire in front of the opening. The poet has exclaimed in ecstasy:
“Balmy sleep, tired nature’s sweet restorer!”
One can never experience the sentiment unless this is tried. Some
died in getting accustomed to it; but generally the survivors were
stout, healthy, and active soldiers. A dry snow was not to be
dreaded, for it supplied a covering equal to at least two blankets.
When morning bugles were sounded, they would rise, throwing blankets
and snow off them, feeling stout and strong enough to throw their
horse over a ten-rail fence. Such a morning made the boys happy that
they were Confederate soldiers and that they could dream of “home,
sweet home.”
Every survivor of the Confederate army will indorse what Gen. Bennett
H. Young, Commander in Chief of the United Confederate Veterans, so
well and truthfully said in his speech on Decoration Day, 1912, at
Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville, Ky., in part as follows:
Our love of country does not dim or tarnish the love for
our Confederation. The Confederate States lived only four
years, and they occupy upon the pages of human history
more space than any other nation that lived for the same
length of time. We are not ashamed for what they did; we
rejoice in what we suffered. The glory and grandeur of the
character of the Confederate soldier we shall maintain for
all time. We have nothing to say derogatory to the courage,
valor, and patriotism of our countrymen who sleep beneath
the stars and stripes, and whose graves are kept green by
a nation’s gratitude and love; but we affirm that no nation
of equal numbers, with the limitation of a large population
of slaves, enlisted proportionately so vast a number of men
under its standards or ever undertook to defend so vast a
territory. We contend that no army of equal numbers ever
fought so many battles in so brief a period or suffered
such tremendous losses. One man in every three who wore
the Confederate uniform died on the battle field or from
wounds received in conflict or in the hospital. History
details no account of such a vast percentage of mortality
or such tremendous sacrifices. These losses proclaim the
incontestable valor of the Confederate soldiers, and no
people who ever engaged in war inflicted upon their enemy
such vast damage and injury.
But few remain of the line that went down with the flag on the 26th
of April, 1865, at Greensboro, N. C. Another generation has come and
gone since then. We seldom see each other now. May we meet again in
the great hereafter!
“In many a lonely thicket,
Far from life’s beaten track,
The scout and guard and picket,
The boys who never came back:
They died where the cannon’s thunder
Made savage pulses thrill,
That the flag they battled under
Might wave o’er free men still.”