The Maine bugle ... campaign; 1-5 Jan. 1894-Oct. 1898 - Maine.gov

82 THE MAINE BUGLE.
from heaven to send its messages into the heart of Charlestown
from her own inaccessible swamps, continued her serv'ices till
the final campaign of Lee's surrender. Her losses in killed on
the 9th of April, 1865, were only equaled by one other regi-
ment, and that regiment was from Maine. Now follows page
after page of distinctive echoes, all of which will interest e\'ery
reader and are in themselves a rich reward, like " the song that
from the heart is poured."
A FEW CORRECTIONS AND AN IMPORTANT SUGGESTION.
Augusta, December 26th, 1893.
Gen. J. P. CiLLEY,
Dear Comrade—In looking over the advance sheet, pages one to sixteen, of this
issue, I have become interested in the article of Comrade Joel F. Brown of Co. I,
First Maine Hea\y Artillery, on page four. For the sake of historical accuracy, I
will give the figures of some of our losses which he gives from recollection. The list
of killed and wounded at Spottsylvania as printed at that time numbeied four hun-
dred and eight}'-four, with seventeen missing, ten of whom at least proved to be
wounded and three prisoners. About twenty who were slightly wounded did not
leave the regiment. The loss of the regiment at Petersburg has been set down at
six hundred and four, of which Co. I lost forty-five and not sixty-nine as his article
would indicate. The comrade must be in error as to the cause of the death of Lieut.
Samuel J- Oakes, afterwards captain of Co. I. He was killed in action March 25th,
1865, near Hatcher's Run. In regard to halting, dressing with "guides on a line"
and going through with the manual of arms after starting out on the fielil at Peters-
burg I must disagree with my comrade. Col. Chaplin never needlessly exposed his
regiment, as his weeping over the loss of his men clearly proves. And in regard to
his throwing away his life, he threw it away just as four hundred and twenty-live
others of our brave boys did, in the faithful performance of a stern duty as ordered
by a superior officer. Now in regard to being on the field twenty minutes; I think
five would be nearer the correct time. The distance from the road to the breastworks
is less than four hundred yards, less than h.ilf a mile out and back, over which a man
could easily walk in ten minutes; and as we mafle no halt after starting but advanced
on a double quick and retreated with all the speed at our command, the time we were
on the held was decidedly brief. Every memiier of the F"irst Maine Heavy .Artillery
who reads this number of the Bugle will at once recognize the list of losses on page
eight accompanying the article as part of a circular letter prepared by myself and
sent out to the members of our regiment and some others for additions and correc-
tions. But through some misunderstanding the list was printed in the Bugle without
my corrections, but now it is printed let us turn it to good account. Let it be under-
stood that this list does not truly represent our losses. Since getting it out I have
learned of over eighty wounded men whose names are not on the list, besides a large
number that I have found are located in the wrong action, and a few will be stricken