g back to the south,
thus widening the gap and leaving us that much farther from support on
either side, the enemy advancing, taking protection of timber to the south
and also to the north of us, gaining our flanks, and we were compelled to
abandon our position. Here the 8th Indiana Battery by its loss of horses
was compelled to abandon their pieces. We retreated to the dry valley road
and thence with Sheridan and Davis to Roseville. Our part in the battle of
Chickamauga was over.
Colonel Fox, under the head of "maximum percentage of casualties in a
single engagement under circumstances showing that few if any of the
missing were captured men," places the 26th Ohio thirty-fifth in the list
of over two thousand regiments that were in the service during the war of
the rebellion, and, basing his estimates on 362 engaged and the total loss
212, as previously stated, at 58.5 per cent. Basing the estimates on
Colonel Young's report of 350 engaged, total loss 213, gives us a small
fraction of over 60 per cent. Of this, company E lost 20, or even 62.5 per
cent, 12 of whom were killed or mortally wounded--37.5 per cent. The
killed and mortally wounded were: First Lieutenant Francis M. Williams,
First Sergeant William H. Green, Sergeant Silas Stucky, Corporal Luther
Reed, and Privates Moses Aller, William Calvert, John Blaine, James R.
Goodman, Charles A. R. Kline, Samuel Neiswander, Emanuel W. Stahler and
Robert W. Stonestreet. The wounded were: Corporal James W. Clifton,
Privates William H. H. Geyer, Henry C. Latham, McDonald Lottridge, Joseph
L. Rue, Henry Stovenour, Adelphus E. Stewart and Isaiah Sipes.
Others in the company were painfully wounded, but are not included in the
list, as they remained and continued doing duty. Only one, William H. H.
Geyer, recovered sufficiently during the remainder of his enlistment to
rejoin the company for duty. Of the killed, by examining the "Roster of
Ohio Soldiers" (published by the State of Ohio), you will find four, viz.:
Silas Stucky, Moses Aller, John Blaine and Emanuel W. Stahler, reported
missing. This is misleading. Kindly remember that the temporary truce was
formed that night soon after the heavy fighting ceased and we closed our
thinned column to right. We were nearly a quarter of a mile south of where
our terrible losses had occurred and but few men were permitted to leave
the line. Our band boys, who usually cared for the wounded, had lost,
killed and wounded, nine of their
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