The loss of the brigade on this occasion was truly severe. Colonel Daniel McCook fell mortally wounded, and Colonel Harmon succeeding him, survived his command but one moment, when he was carried off the field a corpse.
The total loss of the regiment in this charge, in killed, wounded and missing, was ninety-six men.
The company loss was as follows:
| KILLED. | |
| Company A | 11 |
| Company C | 4 |
| Company D | 2 |
| Company F | 3 |
| Company G | 2 |
| Company H | 2 |
| Company I | 3 |
| Company K | 1 |
| Loss in killed | 28 |
| WOUNDED. | |
| Company A | 7 |
| Company B | 3 |
| Company C | 6 |
| Company D | 9 |
| Company E | 5 |
| Company G | 7 |
| Company H | 13 |
| Company K | 5 |
| Loss in wounded | 55 |
| MISSING. | |
| Company A | 6 |
| Company D | 2 |
| Company F | 1 |
| Loss in missing | 9 |
| Officers wounded | 4 |
Ninety-six men were lost from the Eighty-sixth on that fatal day. It was a loss to be remembered and remarked, for they were among our foremost and best men. They were as noble, as true and trusty men, as loving and as loyal as ever lived.
May a just Heaven reward them as their merit deserves! May the earth rest light on their bones! Mourn them not; it was with them "dulce et decorum, est pro patria mori." How well these men have fought and with what heroism they have suffered, let the battles of Chickamauga, Mission Ridge and Kenesaw answer! They will be rewarded, for they have left their "footprints on the sands of time."
It was now a busy time at the hospitals, for they were full of the most heart-rending cases. Among the physicians conspicuous there for energy and ability, were the indefatigable Hooton and Guth—men who justly deserved the confidence and respect of their boys. Among the most trying positions in the army, the Surgeon's is first. The minds and dispositions of soldiers are as varied as the colors of the kaleidoscope, and hard to comprehend even in a sound condition, but when fretted by ill health no one man could come out best with all of them. A good Surgeon, like the whimsical pages of Tristram Shandy, is pestily censured and admired alternately.