62                                  HISTORY OF THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT O.V.V.I.

CASUALTIES OF THE WAR.
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           Official estimates at the War Department compute the number of deaths in the Union armies since the commencement of the war, including the starving prisoners at 325,000. There has doubtless been fully 200,000 Southern soldiers removed by disease and the casualties of battle, so that not less than 525,000 lives have been sacrificed in this unholy contest, begun and prolonged by the South in their vain effort to build up a new republic and strengthen the slave power.

           Our greatest losses during any one campaign occurred at Gettysburg, when 23,260 Union soldiers were killed wounded and taken prisoners. Hooker's campaign of 1863 in the Wilderness ranks next to Gettysburg as far as regards Union losses, they having amounted to 20,000, though generally reported at only 10,000. Burnside lost 12,000 in the battle of Fredericksburg, McClellan 12,426 at Antietam, Porter 9,000 at Gains' Mills, Rosecrans 12,084 at Murfreesboro, and 26,854 at Chickamauga, and Sherman about 9,000 in two days' battle around Atlanta

.            The official reports of General Grant's losses, from the time he crossed the Rapidan until receiving the surrender of Lee, computes them at 90,000. In the various engagements fought by General Grant in the West, he lost 13,574 men at Pittsburg Landing, 9,875 in the severe contests around Vicksburg, and in the attack on Missionary Ridge, about 7,000.

           Though our losses in many of the campaigns have been heavy, they yet fall far below those incurred in some of the European wars. This has been due, to a considerable extent, to the efficiency of the medical department, and the lavish amount of supplies, at least one-third greater than those furnished to any European army. A report recently made to the Imperial Academy of Medicine, by Chenu, Physician of the French army, estimates the losses of that army, in the Crimean war as follows: Killed in the field of battle or missing, 10,340, lost in Semilante, 702; died of various diseases at Alma, 8,084; died of cold, apoplexy, etc., before Sebastopol, 4,342; died in the field and general hospitals, 72,247, total, 95,614. Thus, of 306,264 men sent by France to the Crimea, about one-third found a soldier's grave.

           The siege and reduction of Jerusalem resulted, says Josephus, in the loss of 1,000,000 lives; 90,000 Persians were placed hors du combat at the battle of Albela, and 100,000 Carthegenians in the engagement of Palermo. 12,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry perished on the fatal field of Issus. Spain lost 2,000,000 lives during the prosecution of the Arabians, and 800,000 in expelling the Jews. Frederick the Great inflicted a loss of 40,000 on the Austrians in the conflicts of Leuthen and Leignitz. The battle of Jenna and lesser engagements immediately following, cost the Prussian army over 80,000 men. At the battle of Leipsic, the French suffered casualties to the number of 160,000 and the Sedes and their allies 40,000 more. 50,000 French and Russian soldiers lay dead and dying on the field after the battle of Moskow, and Napoleon again lost 47,000 men at Waterloo, and the Duke of Wellington 15,000 more. – New York Commercial Advertiser.

REBEL LOSS IN THE WAR.

           Governor Parsons, in his proclamation to the people of Alabama, preliminary to reorganization in that State, estimates that 120,000 men of that State went upon the battle field, of whom 70,000 are dead

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