Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/308

 298 Scitf/ i-ii lllxtnrn-iil tiorielii Papers.

we here shed and the gloom of mourning throughout my command bear witness. His loss is irreparable. The memory of ' the gallant Pelham,' his many virtues, his noble nature, and purity of charac- ter, is enshrined as a sacred legacy in the hearts of all who knew him. His record has been bright and spotless, his career brilliant and successful. He fell the noblest of sacrifices on the altar of his country, to whose glorious service he had dedicated his life from the beginning of the war."

SOME INTERESTING FIGURES.

I recall reading a description of one of Humboldt's works by Agassiz, in which he referred to it as " descriptive but not compara- tive," and he went on to show that, in describing anything, its mag- nitude or character, it was necessary to, in some way, institute a comparison with something with which we were familiar.

In order to fully appreciate the magnitude of the great struggle, in which Pelham engaged, you must make some comparison between the civil war and others which were fought by the American people.

The official reports give the following as the losses in killed and wounded of the Federal army in seven out of nearly a thousand se- verely contested struggles during the four years of war.

Seven Days' Fight, 9> 2 9 :

Antietam, 11,426

Murfreesboro,' 8,778

Gettysburg, 16,426

Chickamauga, - - 10,906

Wilderness, J 4.494

Spotsylyania, 9iQ87

None of these figures include the missing, many of whom were either killed or wounded, and, if included, would greatly add to the number.

The battles of the Wilderness and of Spotsylvania might, with great propriety, be termed one continuous battle, and there is no better way to impress us with its magnitude than to observe that the losses in killed and wounded in that engagement exceeded the killed and wounded in all the battles of all the wars fought by our people prior to 1861. To be more explicit, the loss was greater than that in all the battles of the French-Indian war, all the battles of the Revolution, all the battles of the war of 1812, all the battles of the