Now, it must not be inferred from anything in this paper that there has been any intention to reflect upon all Virginia infantry. Far from it. The three regiments in Steuart’s mixed brigade and Mahone’s brigade were good troops. Perhaps there were others equally good. But there was one brigade which was their superior, as it was the superior of most of the troops in General Lee’s army. And that was Smith’s brigade of Early’s division. These troops in spite of the Richmond newspapers and the partiality of certain of their commanders, had no superiors in any army. Never unduly elated by prosperity, never depressed by adversity, they were even to the last, when enthusiasm had entirely fled and hope was almost dead, the models of what good soldiers should be.

DEATH’S THE TEST.

“It is not precisely those who know how to kill,” says Dragomiroff, “but those who know how to die, who are all-powerful on a field of battle.”

Regiments that had twenty-nine or more officers and men killed on the field in certain battles:

Regiment.Brigade.Battle.Killed.
13 Ga.Lawton.Sharpsburg.48.
 3 N. C.Ripley.”46.
 1 Texas.Wofford.”45.
13 N. C.Garland.”41.
30 Va.Walker.”39.
48 N. C.””31.
27 ”””31.
50 Ga.Drayton.”29.
57 N. C.Law.Fredericksburg.32.
 2 ”Ramseur.Chancellorsville.47.
 4 ”””45.
 3 ”Colston.”38.
 7 ”Lane.”37.
 1 ”Colston.”34.
37 ”Lane.”34.
23 ”Iverson.”32.
13 ”Pender.”31.
22 ”””30.
51 Ga.Semmes.”30.
 4 ”Doles.”29.
18 N. C.Lane.”30.
26 N. C.Pettigrew.Gettysburg.86.
42 Miss.Davis.”60.
11 N. C.Pettigrew.”50.
 2 Miss.Davis.”49.
45 N. C.Daniel.”46.
23 ”Iverson.”41.
17 Miss.Barksdale.”40.
55 N. C.Davis.”39.
59 VaArmistead.”35.
52 N. C.Pettigrew.”33.
11 Ga.Anderson.”32.
 5 N. C.Iverson.”31.
13 S. C.Perrin.”31.
13 N. C.Scales.”29.
 2 ” Batt.Daniel.”29.
 3 ”Steuart.”29.
20 ”Iverson.”29.

The proportion of wounded to killed was 4.8 to one. That is, if 100 are killed 480 will be wounded. When 100 men are killed, there will be among the wounded 64 who will die of wounds. While this may not always be the case in a single regiment, yet when a number of regiments are taken together the wonderful law of averages makes these proportions rules about which there is no varying.

There is an old saw which says that “it takes a soldier’s weight in lead and iron to kill him.” Most people believe that this saying has to be taken with many grains of allowance, but it was shown during the war to be literally true. In the battle of Murfreesboro the weight of the 20,307 projectiles fired by the Federal artillery was 225,000 pounds, and that of the something over 2,000,000 musket balls exceeded 150,000 pounds and their combined weight exceeded that of the 2,319 Confederates who were killed or mortally wounded.

In the Federal armies deaths from wounds amounted to 110,000 and from disease and all other causes about 250,000, a total of about 360,000. For deaths in the Southern armies only an approximation can be arrived at. Probably 100,000 died of wounds and as many more of disease, a total of about 200,000 which added to the Federal loss, makes about 560,000. This number of soldiers drawn up in battle array would make a line 112 miles long.

WEBB’S PHILADELPHIA BRIGADE AND OTHER TROOPS.

With singular in appropriateness this brigade and several other Federal organizations have erected monuments to commemorate their gallantry upon the third day’s battlefield. It would appear that they should have been erected on the spot where their gallantry was displayed. It does not require much courage to lie behind breastworks and shoot down an enemy in an open field and then to run away, as it and the other troops in its vicinity did, when that enemy continued to approach. But, while it does not add to their fame, it is not to their discredit that they did give way. For however much discipline and inherent qualities may extend it, there is a limit to human endurance, and they had suffered severely, Webb’s brigade in three days having lost forty-nine per cent. If there ever have been troops serving in a long war who never on any occasion gave way ’till they had lost as heavily, they were the superiors of any in Napoleon’s or Wellington’s armies. The loss in the British infantry at Salamanca was only twelve per cent. That of the “Light Brigade” at Balaklava was only thirty-seven. That of Pickett’s only twenty-eight, and they were ruined forever. It is true that the North Carolina and Mississippi brigades of Heth’s division lost in the first day’s battle about thirty and on the third at least sixty per cent., and this without having their morale seriously impaired, but then both of these organizations were composed of exceptionally fine troops.