Kelly and Osler. The former was present (at date of commission) with
the regiment and was mustered. Osler was wounded June 27, 1864, at Kenesaw
and was still in the hospital, at or near the time Kelly was commissioned
captain and assigned to company F. He (Osler) joined the regiment, was
mustered and assigned to company E. He remained but a short time, his
wound still in bad condition and continued so, and he was compelled to
have his leg amputated twenty or twenty-five years later. He died in
Columbus, Ohio, a few years ago. In 1890 I did considerable careful
estimating as to losses and percentage of losses in the 26th Ohio and
wrote Colonel William F. Fox the results of my study. I here insert a copy
of his reply:
"Albany, N. Y., June 18, 1890.
"Capt. Walden Kelley, Osborn, Mo.:
"Dear Comrade--Your interesting letter of the 9th was read with
pleasure and in the next edition of 'Regimental Losses' I will insert
on page 32:
"'Twenty-sixth Ohio, Wood's division, number engaged 362, killed 52,
percentage killed 14.'
"This percentage, however, already appears, although in a somewhat
different form, on page 36, the loss being one of the severest in the
war.
"I was pleased with the perfect analysis you made of the enrollment
of your regiment, for it indicates that among the readers of
Regimental Losses there are those who catch the idea involved in the
question of enrollment, and who understand the argument I was trying
to make. Had I known that the enrollment of the Twenty-sixth was
capable of such an extensive boiling down, I would have gone over the
names myself, and, as a result, would have assigned it a page among
the 'three hundred fighting regiments.' As it is, I will try to put
it there in the next edition. I will also insert on page 13:
"'Twenty-sixth Ohio, Newton's division, Fourth corps, 1,161 enrolled,
122 killed, 10.5 per cent.'
"A further study of the matter leads me to think that the
Twenty-sixth must have lost 60 in killed and mortally wounded at
Chickamauga but as this number includes some whose exact fate will
never be known, I will have to leave the number, for the present, at
52, which is all that can be officially proved. If I remember
rightly, however, this number includes two or three of the missing
men in company E, whose names were mentioned in y
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