class="c3">94

In his official report, General Rosecrans gives his loss as follows: Killed, 92 officers, 1,441 enlisted men; total, 1,523; wounded, 384 officers, 6,861 enlisted men; total, 7,245.

Total killed and wounded, 8,778 officers and men, or 20.22% of the entire force in action; the loss of prisoners, he states, will fall short of 2,800 officers and men.

The loss of the brigade compared with the loss of the army is as follows: Officers killed in the army, 92; in the brigade, 5; = 5.4% of army loss. Officers wounded in the army, 384; in the brigade, 21; = 5.4% of army loss. Enlisted men killed in the army, 1,441; in the brigade, 89; = 6.1% of army loss. Enlisted men wounded in the army, 6,861; in the brigade, 468; = 6.8% of army loss. Captured and missing in the army, 2,800; in the brigade, 47; = 1.6% of army loss.

The loss of the army in killed and wounded was about 20% of the force in action; the loss of the brigade in killed and wounded was 37% of its strength in action.

The effective force of the army in the battle was, all told, 43,400 officers and men; the effective force, of the brigade taken into action was, all told, 1,566 officers and men, or 3.6% of the strength of the army; while the loss of killed and wounded of the brigade is 6.6% of that of the army.

The loss of killed and wounded in Scribner’s Brigade was reported as 208 officers and men, or about 2.3% of army loss; in John Beatty’s Brigade as 281 officers and enlisted men, or about 3.2% of army loss; while the three brigades were virtually the same in strength of effective force.

Only two brigades in the whole army report a larger loss of killed and wounded than the Regular Brigade; both were about 200 men stronger than that brigade, and suffered losses before and after the 31st December, while the loss of the Regulars was all on that day; the brigades were Carlin’s, of the right wing, loss 627—but lost on the 30th 175 men, and a few more after the 31st; Grose’s, of the left wing, 585—but lost before the 31st 10 men, and on the 2d of January, the brigade report states, met with a severe loss, not as large as on the 31st, however.

These figures tell the tale, and it is doubtful if in any other engagement of the war any organization under similar circumstances suffered as large a loss.

The total number of men received by the general Government in its armies during the war, for various periods, was 2,859,132; these, reduced to a three years’ standard, would make 2,320,272 men.

The average effective number of each 1,000 men in service has been computed at 693 men; this, applied to the number of men of the three years’ standard, would, in round numbers, give an effective force of 1,608,000 men.

The total losses of the war, as near as it can be done with incomplete returns, has been computed to be: Killed in action, 44,238, or about 1.9% of the effective force; wounded in action, 280,000, or about 12% of the effective force; while the Regular Brigade lost on the 31st of December alone: Killed in action, 94, or 6% of its effective strength; wounded in action, 489, or 31% of its effective strength. Of course, the above computations can be applied only in a general way, inasmuch as after 1861 the actual number of men in the United States service, on an average, was, in round numbers, only about 850,000 per year.

In his report of the battle, General Geo. H. Thomas says: “In the execution of this last movement, the Regular Brigade came under a most murderous fire * * * but with the cooperation of Scribner’s and Beatty’s Brigades and Guenther’s and Loomis’ Batteries, gallantly held its ground against overwhelming odds.”

General Rousseau, in his report, speaks of the brigade as follows: “On that body of brave men the shock of battle fell heaviest, and its loss was most severe. Over one-third of the command fell, killed or wounded. But it stood up to the work and bravely breasted the storm, and, though Major King, commanding the 15th, and Major Slemmer (old Pickens), of the 16th, fell severely wounded, and Major Carpenter, commanding the 19th, fell dead in the last charge, together with many officers and men, the brigade did not falter for a moment. These three battalions were a part of my old 4th Brigade at the battle of Shiloh. The 18th Infantry, Majors Townsend and Caldwell commanding, were new troops to me, but I am proud now to say we know each other. * * * The brigade was admirably and gallantly handled by Lieut.-Col. Shepherd. * * * Of the batteries of Guenther and * * * I cannot say too much. * * * Without them we could not have held our position in the centre.”

Surgeon Eben Swift, Medical Director, Department of the Cumberland, reports: “Much of the heaviest loss sustained to-day fell upon our Regular Battalions, brigaded under command of Lieutenant-Colonel O. L. Shepherd, in holding the cedar brake on the right of the centre against the columns of the enemy sweeping down upon them after having forced back our entire right wing.”

W. D. Bickham, who was on the field himself, in his book, “Rosecrans’ Campaign with the Army of the Cumberland,” published in March, 1863, makes the following record: “The Regular Brigade, Lieut.-Col. Shepherd at the head of the column, moved steadily into the thickets, and formed with Colonel John Beatty’s Brigade on the left, and Scribner’s in close support. Directly a dropping fire, like the big drops which precede a storm, indicated the proximity of the enemy. * * * But the enemy pushed hard. The gallant regulars resisted with the staunchness of their professional esprit, and refused to yield an inch. * * * The file firing of the regulars at this point was fearfully destructive.”

“Pont Mercy,” a correspondent of the New York Tribune, wrote from the battle-field: “There is a record, however, which shall be more amply made, when the Biography of the gallant Regular Brigade is ready for history. * * * Almost one-half the casualties were regulars, while they numbered less than one-fourth of the entire division. The missing indicates discipline and skill of officers with unmistakable emphasis. It was so in the sanguinary battle of Gaines’ Mills on the Peninsula.”

The Regular Brigade of the West had indeed sent greeting to their comrades in the East.

As already stated, the dead of the brigade were buried in front of the position held by it nearly throughout the battle; the intention was to erect a monument over their remains, and officers and men subscribing liberally, a large sum was collected—about $4,000. The dead heroes rest now at the same point in the National Cemetery, established by the General Government; and on the 12th of May, 1883, a monument made by the sculptor, Launt Thompson, was erected over their resting-place.

The foregoing is not a fancy painted history of the brigade in this battle; it is not embellished with rhetorical allusions to fire and smoke, shot and shell, grape and canister, the roar of the cannon, the rattling of the musketry, the groans of the dying and wounded; it is a simple and plain statement of facts in unembellished terms; although the groans of the wounded and dying, the rattling of the musketry, the roar of the cannon, grape and canister, shot and shell, and fire and smoke were constant accompaniments of the shifting scenes of this bloody and destructive drama of the history of our country.