Bragg, out of a total of fifty-nine thousand two hundred and forty-two, lost seventeen thousand eight hundred.  Rosecran’s total was sixty thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven (exclusive of the losses on the 18th and 19th).  His loss on the 20th was sixteen thousand five hundred and fifty.  The greater loss of the Confederates can be accounted for when it is remembered that they were the assaulting party—­the enemy’s superior position, formidable entrenchments, and greater amount of artillery.

The Battle of Chickamauga was one of the most sanguinary of the war, when the number of troops engaged and the time in actual combat are taken into consideration.  In the matter of losses it stands as the fifth greatest battle of the war.  History gives no authentic record of greater casualties in battle in the different organizations, many of the regiments losing from fifty to fifty-seven per cent, of their numbers, while some reached as high as sixty-eight per cent.  When it’s remembered that usually one is killed out right to every five that are wounded, some idea of the dreadful mortality on the field can be formed.

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CHAPTER XXIII

Notes of the Battle—­Pathetic Scenes—­Sketches of Officers.

The Seventh Regiment was particularly unfortunate in the loss of her brilliant officers.  Colonel Bland and Lieutenant Colonel Hood both being killed, that regiment was left without a field officer.  Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Gist, of the Fifteenth, being permanently disabled, and Major William Gist being soon afterwards killed, the Fifteenth was almost in the same condition of the Seventh.  So also was the Third Battalion.  Captain Robert Jennings, commanding the battalion as senior Captain, lost his arm here, and was permanently retired, leaving Captain Whitner in command.  Major Dan Miller had received a disabling wound in some of the former battles and never returned.  Colonel Rice returning soon after this battle, he likewise received a wound from which he never sufficiently recovered for active service, so the Third Battalion was thereafter commanded by a Captain, Captain Whitner commanding until his death one year later.  The Eighth Regiment met an irreparable loss in the death of Lieutenant Colonel Hoole.  No officer in the brigade had a more soldierly bearing, high attainments, and knightly qualities than Colonel Hoole, and not only the regiment, but the whole brigade felt his loss.  He was one of those officers whose fine appearance caused men to stop and look at him twice before passing.  The many fine officers, Captains as well as Lieutenants, that were killed or wounded here made a death and disabled roll, from the effects of which the brigade never fully recovered.  Then the whole army mourned the supposed death of the gallant and dashing Texan, General Hood, but he lived to yet write his name in indelible letters on the roll-of fame among the many officers of distinction in the Army of Tennessee.