General Bragg's returns of the 20th of August-the last of record-reported his aggregate of all arms | 43,866 |
Reinforced from J. E. Johnston's army in August | 9,000 |
Reinforced from J. E. Johnston's army in September (Gregg and McNair) | 2,500 |
Reinforced from General Lee's army, September 18 and 19 (a large estimate) | 5,000 |
Total | 60,366 |
Losses on the 18th and 19th | 1,124 |
Aggregate for battle on the 20th | 59,242 |
General Rosecrans's return of September 20, 1863, showed: Aggregate of infantry, equipped | 46,561 |
Aggregate of cavalry, equipped | 10,114 |
Aggregate of artillery, equipped | 4,192 |
Total | 60,867 |
Confederate losses (estimated; returns imperfect) | 17,800 |
Union losses by returns (infantry, artillery, and cavalry) | 16,550 |
[458]
after a night's rest, seemed promising of more important results.
The Confederate chief did not even know of his victory until the morning of the 21st, when, upon riding to his extreme right, he found his commander at that point seeking the enemy in his immediate front, and commended the officer upon his vigilance,--twelve hours after the retreat of the enemy's forces.
The forces engaged and their respective casualties follow:
The exceeding heaviness of these losses will be better understood, and the desperate and bloody character of the Chickamauga battle more fully appreciated, upon a little analysis.
The battle, viewed from the stand-point of the Union losses, was the fifth greatest of the war, Gettysburg, Spottsylvania, the Wilderness, and Chancellorsville alone exceeding it, but each of these battles were of much longer time.
Viewed by comparison of Confederate losses, Chickamauga occupies similar place-fifth--in the scale of magnitude among the battles of the war.
But the sanguinary nature of the contention is best
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