|
TOTAL DEAD AND WOUNDED CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS
Introduction
Dead, killed, missing, and wounded are familiar terms associated with war,
but there are actually differences, some rather obvious, between them. There
is also a difference between the terms casualty and fatality. A fatality is defined as death of a combatant during time of
war. A casualty is a military individual lost through death, wounds, injury, sickness, disease, internment, capture, or missing
in action. A casualty is a combatant (soldier, marine, sailor, etc.) who is expected but unable to fight in a battle. Many
soldiers became casualties several times during the Civil War: some soldiers were captured during multiple actions; others
were wounded in several battles; and some were too ill to fight in the engagement. A basic definition of fatality is any combatant
who dies during the war, including killed in action, mortally wounded, died of disease, accidental death, and deaths from
all other causes, even suicide. A casualty may also be defined as any combatant who is absent or unaccounted for during war.
| Total Civil War Killed, Dead, and Wounded Soldiers |
|
| Total Civil War Killed, Dead, and Wounded Soldiers |
| Total Civil War Killed, Dead, and Wounded |
|
| Total Civil War Killed, Dead, and Wounded |
History
At least 618,000 Americans died in the Civil War, and some experts
say the toll reached 700,000. The number that is most often quoted, or best estimate, is 620,000. At any rate, these casualties exceed the nation's loss in all its other
wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam. The Union armies raised from 2,500,000 to 2,750,000 men. Their losses, as
indicated by the most quoted Civil War statisticians, William F. Fox and Frederick H. Dyer, are as follows:
| Battle deaths: |
110,070 |
| Disease, etc.: |
249,458 |
| Total |
359,528 |
The Confederate strength, known less accurately
because of missing records, was from 750,000 to 1,250,000. Its estimated losses:
| Battle deaths: |
94,000 |
| Disease, etc.: |
164,000 |
| Total |
258,000 |
| Total Civil War Killed in the Union Army by State |
|
| Dyer, Total Civil War Deaths in Union Military. Includes Killed, Mortally Wounded, Disease, Etc. |
(Above) Dyer, Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (1908).
Frederick Dyer had served the Union as a drummer boy before spending some forty years compiling statistics for every
Union unit. He remains the most cited Civil War statistician with his exhaustive work still appreciated by many
scholars, historians, and authors. At first glance Dyer's study may give the impression of data and dates sandwiched
between thick volumes, but the compendium is actually a richly prepared history of the units that served and fought during
the conflict. Dyer also indicates comparative percentages, total killed by state, cause of death, and grand total deaths.
Dyer, like most statisticians of the war, only stated and applied the word killed when the soldier was killed in action
or mortally wounded. Total deaths, on the other hand, included killed in action, mortally wounded, died of disease, died
while in prison, deaths other than battle, or deaths from causes other than battle, and often missing in action. The
reader should therefore take note of the application of Total Civil War Killed and
Total Civil War Deaths. The majority of Civil War soldiers, Union and Confederate, died by disease,
making it the major cause of death during the four year conflict. Notice that Dyer also includes Native Americans, African
Americans, and Navy and Marines -- categories that were often ignored. The list represents the Union military only, with Dyer
and many others conceding that Confederate Military and Casualty
Totals for Each Southern State was more complex due to lack of records. Dyer and fellow statistician
Fox, William F. Regimental Losses in the American Civil War (1889), both have identical totals for each category. While the
numbers are the same, Fox, however, expands on some of the categories. For example, both statisticians indicate "Veteran
Volunteers, Total Deaths All Causes 106," but Fox adds a notation indicating that the losses were all from Hancock's
Corps.
An accurate total count of soldiers and sailors from any state is complex,
because sailors, marines, and blacks were often not counted, and many soldiers reenlisted and were counted
a second time (and sometimes third, etc.) for the state, known as a double count, thus skewing the state's numbers. An accurate
total casualty count is also complicated because some states counted its contributions to the U.S. Army (aka U.S. Volunteers),
state militia, national guard, independent commands, soldiers who enlisted in units from other states (who were sometimes
claimed and counted by two states), reserve units, home guard, and even miscellaneous units (or units not classified). Many
missing in action soldiers were indicated as killed in action, while some were located years after the Civil War tending
the family farm at their new residence in another state.
| Summary of Troops and Total Deaths All Causes |
|
| Total Civil War Killed all causes by states, including Whites, Navy, Marines, Coloreds, and Indians |
(Above) Dyer, Frederick H. A compendium of the War of the Rebellion (1908).
Dyer and Fox, William F. Regimental Losses in the American Civil War (1889), both have identical totals for each category.
While the numbers are the same, Fox, however, expands on some of the categories. For example, both statisticians indicate
"Veteran Volunteers, Total Deaths All Causes 106," but Fox adds a notation indicating that the losses were all from
Hancock's Corps.
An example of conflicting but yet detailed Civil War casualty data may be
viewed in the following casualty reports for the State of New York:
During the war, according to
Frederick Phisterer, New York in the War of the Rebellion (1890), the Empire State provided more than 370,000
soldiers to the Union armies. Of these, 834 officers were killed in action, as well as 12,142 enlisted men. Another 7,235
officers and men perished from their wounds, and 27,855 died from disease. Another 5,766 were estimated to have perished while
incarcerated in Southern prisoner-of-war camps. Phisterer indicates that New York had a grand total of 53,832 fatalities.
Frederick H. Dyer, A Compendium
of the War of the Rebellion (1908), states that during the course of the Civil War, New York suffered a total of 46,534
deaths: 19,085 in killed and mortally wounded; 19,835 died of disease; 4,710 died as prisoners-of-war; 914 died from accidents;
1,990 died from causes other than battles.
According to The Union Army (1908), New York provided 502,765
men (includes reenlistments or double counts) to the Federal military. However, of
the total number of individuals from New York who served in the army and navy of the United States during the war, the state
claims a loss by death while in service of 52,993. Of this number, there were killed in action, 866 officers, 13,344 enlisted
men, aggregate 14,210; died of wounds received in action, 414 officers, 7,143 enlisted men, aggregate 7,557; died of disease
and other causes, 506 officers, 30,720 enlisted men, aggregate 31,226; total, 1,786 officers, 51,207 enlisted men. The adjutant-general
of the United States in his report of 1885 only credits the state with the following loss: killed in action, 772 officers,
11,329 enlisted men, aggregate 12,101; died of wounds received in action, 371 officers, 6,613 enlisted men, aggregate
6,984; died of disease and other causes, 387 officers, 27,062 enlisted men, aggregate 27,449; total, 1,530 officers, 45,004
enlisted men, aggregate 46,534. Of these 5,546 officers and men died as prisoners. The above report,
however, only includes losses in the militia, national guard and volunteers of the state, and fails to include the losses
in other branches of the service, including those who served in the navy and marine corps, and in the colored troops. Of the
51,936 men furnished by the state to the navy, 706 were killed in battle, 997 died of disease, 36 died as prisoners, and 141
from all other causes — total, 1,880. See also New York Civil War History.
| Total Civil War Deaths, Died, and Killed |
|
| Fox, Total Civil War Dead by Category and Cause |
(Above) Fox, William F. Regimental Losses in the American Civil
War (1889). Fox, along with Dyer, offer extensive statistical data for Civil War losses. As stated, Fox is also considered
an authority with his acclaimed Regimental Losses in the American Civil War. His exhaustive work as a statistician allows
the reader another definitive perspective regarding Civil War casualties and fatalities. Fox is quick to state best estimate
when no concrete evidence exists, so his work, for both Union and Confederate armies, remains fair, balanced, and absent
bias. Although 150 years have passed since the great war, the data of Dyer and Fox have not seen any notable improvements.
Regarding any number quoted herein, these were all troops of the line, and they served during the whole, or the greater part of the war. The number does not include regiments which served a short
time only; neither does it include disbanded or consolidated regiments; nor state militia, junior reserves, senior reserves,
home guards, local defense regiments, and separate companies. And, yet, these miscellaneous organizations rendered effective
service at times, and took the place of regular troops. The Petersburg entrenchments on June 15, 1864, were held successfully
by militiamen during the first assault, until the arrival of Lee's army. Partisan bands like Mosby's and John Morgan's kept
ten times their number of Union cavalry employed in protecting the territory in which they operated, or in watching their
movements.
The question arises, next, as to the average enrollment of the Confederate regiments. That known, the strength of their
armies could soon be computed; the rolls of the North Carolina regiments have been printed and--with the eight regiments
of Junior and Senior Reserves not included in the foregoing list--show a total enrollment of 125,000 men. These rolls, incomplete
as they necessarily are, show that twenty-two of the North Carolina regiments numbered
over 1,500 men, each; and some of them over 1,800. The Confederacy organized but few new regiments after 1862; the recruits
and conscripts were assigned to the old regiments to keep them up to an effective strength.
| Fox, Total Civil War Dead in the Confederate Army |
|
| Confederate Deaths in Killed in Action, Died of Wounds, and Died of Disease |
(Above) Fox states the complexities in trying to arrive at any
total number of men that served and died while in service of the Confederate Army. While he affirms that Confederate
records were missing or incomplete, it must be noted that many Southern returns and reports were poorly recorded
before being destroyed during the last year of the conflict. And some
units, such as partisan and independent units, didn't record any information. Although the Union Army was known to have destroyed
many of the confiscated or surrendered Confederate records and rolls, several high ranking Rebel officials intentionally destroyed
their records on the grounds that the information could incriminate them
during any trial for charges of murder or even treason against the United States. So the evidence indicates that both
sides were culpable for the lack of Confederate records and reports.
Overall, many Confederate Service Records and Compiled Military
Service Records were accidentally or intentionally destroyed, lost, and even poorly or inaccurately recorded. To
make matters worse, some regiments never recorded any information. Lt.
Col. Walter Clark states that "The majority of troop rosters and official military records had been forcibly confiscated by Lincoln’s
hordes or wantonly destroyed.” Walter Clark's Regiments: An Extended Index to the Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina
in the Great War 1861-1865.
In the report for 1865-6, made by General James B. Fry, United States
Provost Marshal-General, there is a tabulation of Confederate losses as compiled from the muster-rolls on file in the Bureau
of Confederate Archives. The returns are incomplete, and nearly all the Alabama rolls are missing. Still the figures are worth
noting, as they show that at least 74,524 were killed or died of wounds; and, that 59,297 died of disease. From Gen. Fry's
tabulation the following abstract is made:
DEATHS IN CONFEDERATE ARMIES.*
Killed or Died of Wounds
| STATE |
Killed
(Officers) |
Killed
(Enlisted Men) |
Total |
Died of Wounds
(Officers) |
Died of Wounds
(Enlisted
Men) |
Total |
| Virginia |
266 |
5,062 |
5,328 |
200 |
2,319 |
2,519 |
| North Carolina |
677 |
13,845 |
14,522 |
330 |
4,821 |
5,151 |
| South Carolina |
360 |
8,827 |
9,187 |
257 |
3,478 |
3,735 |
| Georgia |
172 |
5,381 |
5,553 |
140 |
1,579 |
1,719 |
| Florida |
47 |
746 |
793 |
16 |
490 |
506 |
| Alabama |
14 |
538 |
552 |
9 |
181 |
190 |
| Mississippi |
122 |
5,685 |
5,807 |
75 |
2,576 |
2,651 |
| Louisiana |
70 |
2,548 |
2,618 |
42 |
826 |
868 |
| Texas |
28 |
1,320 |
1,348 |
13 |
1,228 |
1,241 |
| Arkansas |
104 |
2,061 |
2,165 |
27 |
888 |
915 |
| Tennessee |
99 |
2,016 |
2,115 |
49 |
825 |
874 |
| Regular C.S. Army |
35 |
972 |
1,007 |
27 |
441 |
468 |
| Border States |
92 |
1,867 |
1,959 |
61 |
672 |
733 |
| Totals |
2,086 |
50,868 |
52,954 |
1,246 |
20,324 |
21,570 |
Died of Disease
| STATE |
Officers |
Enlisted Men |
Total |
| Virginia |
168 |
6,779 |
6,947 |
| North Carolina |
541 |
20,061 |
20,602 |
| South Carolina |
79 |
4,681 |
4,760 |
| Georgia |
107 |
3,595 |
3,702 |
| Florida |
17 |
1,030 |
1,047 |
| Alabama |
8 |
716 |
724 |
| Mississippi |
103 |
6,704 |
6,807 |
| Louisiana |
32 |
3,027 |
3,059 |
| Texas |
10 |
1,250 |
1,260 |
| Arkansas |
74 |
3,708 |
3,782 |
| Tennessee |
72 |
3,353 |
3,425 |
| Regular C.S. Army |
25 |
1,105 |
1,040 |
| Border States |
58 |
2,084 |
2,142 |
| Totals |
1,294 |
58,003 |
59,297 |
*Due to incomplete or missing records, no accurate losses can be determined. Totals
also do not include the estimated 30,000 Confederate prisoners that died.
DEATHS IN UNION ARMIES.
| War or Conflict |
Branch of Service |
Number Serving |
Total Deaths |
Battle Deaths |
Other Deaths |
Wounds Not Mortal |
| Civil War |
Total |
2,213,363 |
364,511 |
140,414 |
224,097 |
281,881 |
| (Union Forces Only) |
Army |
2,128,948 |
359,528 |
138,154 |
221,374 |
280,040 |
| 1861-1865 |
Navy |
--- |
4,523 |
2,112 |
2,411 |
1,710 |
| |
Marines |
84,415 |
460 |
148 |
312 |
131 |
| States
and Territories |
Killed & Mortally Wounded |
Died of Disease |
Died as Prisoner |
Died from Accidents |
Died from all Causes except Battle |
Total Deaths** |
|
|
|
|
|
| Alabama |
50 |
228 |
22 |
5 |
40 |
345 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
305 |
1,254 |
8 |
25 |
121 |
1,713 |
|
|
|
|
|
| California |
108 |
344 |
|
62 |
59 |
573 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Colorado |
153 |
120 |
|
25 |
25 |
323 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Connecticut |
1,947 |
2,542 |
526 |
101 |
238 |
5,354 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Dakota |
2 |
4 |
|
|
|
6 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Delaware |
383 |
356 |
75 |
21 |
47 |
882 |
|
|
|
|
|
| District
of Columbia |
41 |
150 |
44 |
10 |
45 |
290 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Florida |
18 |
189 |
|
|
8 |
215 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Georgia |
|
13 |
|
|
2 |
15 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Illinois |
9,884 |
21,065 |
1,721 |
1,028 |
1,126 |
34,834 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Indiana |
7,243 |
16,663 |
1,152 |
791 |
853 |
26,672 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Iowa |
3,540 |
8,498 |
515 |
227 |
221 |
13,001 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Kansas |
737 |
1,638 |
36 |
104 |
115 |
2,630 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Kentucky |
2,478 |
6,383 |
860 |
454 |
599 |
10,774 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Louisiana |
214 |
624 |
15 |
36 |
56 |
945 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Maine |
3,184 |
5,257 |
541 |
118 |
298 |
9,393 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Maryland |
909 |
1,160 |
647 |
98 |
168 |
2,982 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Massachusetts |
6,115 |
5,530 |
1,483 |
257 |
557 |
13,942 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Michigan |
4,448 |
8,269 |
1,268 |
339 |
429 |
14,753 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Minnesota |
626 |
1,677 |
159 |
43 |
79 |
2,584 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Mississippi |
3 |
66 |
|
1 |
8 |
78 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Missouri |
3,317 |
9,243 |
225 |
487 |
613 |
13,885 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Nebraska |
35 |
159 |
1 |
23 |
21 |
239 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Nevada |
2 |
29 |
|
1 |
1 |
33 |
|
|
|
|
|
| New Hampshire |
1,903 |
2,427 |
294 |
76 |
182 |
4,882 |
|
|
|
|
|
| New Jersey |
2,578 |
2,415 |
419 |
134 |
208 |
5,754 |
|
|
|
|
|
| New
Mexico |
73 |
144 |
|
19 |
41 |
277 |
|
|
|
|
|
| New York |
19,085 |
19,835 |
4,710 |
914 |
1,990 |
46,534 |
|
|
|
|
|
| North Carolina |
43 |
216 |
49 |
3 |
49 |
360 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Ohio |
11,588 |
19,365 |
2,356 |
1,168 |
998 |
35,475 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Oregon |
11 |
21 |
|
7 |
6 |
46 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Pennsylvania |
15,265 |
11,782 |
4,119 |
636 |
1,381 |
33,183 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Rhode Island |
460 |
648 |
84 |
69 |
60 |
1,321 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Tennessee |
744 |
4,086 |
1,150 |
375 |
422 |
6,777 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Texas |
12 |
101 |
1 |
6 |
21 |
141 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Vermont |
1,809 |
2,597 |
486 |
70 |
262 |
5,224 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Virginia |
10 |
16 |
13 |
2 |
1 |
42 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Washington
Territory |
|
12 |
|
5 |
5 |
22 |
|
|
|
|
|
| West Virginia |
1,247 |
1,878 |
617 |
150 |
125 |
4,017 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Wisconsin |
3,802 |
7,464 |
604 |
212 |
219 |
12,301 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Indian Nations |
107 |
775 |
|
10 |
126 |
1,018 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Regular
Army |
2,283 |
2,552 |
540 |
197 |
116 |
5,798 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Colored Troops |
2,894 |
29,658 |
98 |
576 |
3,621 |
36,847 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Veteran
Volunteers |
1 |
82 |
|
14 |
9 |
106 |
|
|
|
|
|
| U.S.
Volunteers |
12 |
202 |
|
11 |
18 |
243 |
|
|
|
|
|
| U.S.
Sharpshooters |
263 |
247 |
25 |
6 |
11 |
552 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Veteran
Reserves |
27 |
1,424 |
|
131 |
90 |
1,672 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Generals
and Staffs |
85 |
142 |
1 |
10 |
1 |
239 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Miscellaneous,
Bands, etc |
16 |
200 |
2 |
1 |
13 |
232 |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Total: |
110,070 |
199,720 |
24,866 |
9,058 |
15,814 |
359,528 |
|
|
|
|
|
| Dead Civil War Soldiers at Battle of Gettysburg |
|
| Dead Civil War Soldiers at Battle of Gettysburg |
NUMBER AND LOSSES OF NORTH CAROLINA TROOPS.
Although
North Carolina had not been favorable to Secession at an early stage of the troubles between the North and South, yet when
the fight came on, her contributions to the Southern Cause were more important than those of any other State. Alone of all
her sister States, she made importations of supplies from abroad that were of great consequence. During the Revolutionary
War, she had employed a Board of Officers to collect and export produce and to import necessaries and munitions; and in 1861,
history repeated itself, and she early made a large appropriation to purchase supplies abroad, and later under Gov. Vance's
administration, she bought a fast vessel and imported large quantities of mill supplies, 60,000 pairs of hand cards, 10,000
grain scythes, shoes and leather for shoes equal to 250,000 pairs, 50,000 blankets, grey woolen cloth for 250,000 uniforms,
12,000 overcoats, $50,000 gold value of medicines and many other supplies. As the shoes, blankets and clothing were more than
sufficient for the use of her own troops, large quantities of them were turned over to the Confederate Government for the
troops of other States. The wisdom of the North Carolina statesmen made them provident for the supply of the Army; and in
like manner, their spirit and zeal led them to cooperate with the Confederate Government in the enforcement of the conscript
act to an extent beyond what obtained elsewhere. In no other State was the conscript act enforced so thoroughly as in North
Carolina, the State authorities aiding in its enforcement.
The contribution of the State in soldiers was indeed remarkable,
and in losses she suffered much more than any other State.
Major-General R. C.
Gatlin, who had been a distinguished officer of the U.S. Army, while Adjutant General of the State of North Carolina, on May
16, 1864, reported that “up to the 31st of March, 1864, North Carolina had furnished” troops as follows:
| “Transferred to the Confederate States according to the
original rolls (August 20, 1862), |
64,436 |
| Estimated number of recruits that have volunteered in the different
companies’ service, since the date of the original rolls |
20,608 |
| Number of conscripts sent to the army |
14,460 |
| Number of troops in the service of the State not transferred, |
2,903 |
| Making an aggregate of |
102,607 |
| These troops have been organized as follows: |
|
| Regiments of Artillery |
3 |
| Regiments of Cavalry |
6 |
| Regiments of Infantry |
60 |
| Total number of Regiments |
69 |
| Battalions of Artillery |
4 |
| Battalions of Cavalry |
4 |
| Battalions of Infantry |
3 |
| Total number of Battalions |
11 |
| Unattached Companies, infantry |
6” |
|
| Map of Confederate territory losses year by year |
“There is one Company from this State in the 10th Virginia Cavalry,
five in the 7th Confederate Cavalry, four in the 62nd Georgia Regiment, and one in the 61st Virginia Infantry.” That
was March, 1864.
On July 7, 1863, the General Assembly of North Carolina passed an Act to organize the Guard for Home
Defence, to be composed of all persons between the ages of 18 and 50, not actually in the service of the Confederate States.
These were enrolled and organized into companies, and regiments, and those across the Blue Ridge into a Brigade and John W.
McElroy was appointed a Brigadier-General, and assigned to the command
with head quarters at Burnsville.
The number of Home Guard enrolled was 28,098; but a large number of them were cripples,
infirm and decrepit, and unfit to perform military duty. Boards of Examiners were appointed to pass on all claims of exemption
on account of physical disability; but before that work was completed, the Confederate law putting all persons between the
ages of 17 and 50 into the Confederate service was passed and that largely reduced the
Home Guard organizations. But the Home Guard under General McElroy was early called out and was in active service; and the
Home Guard of the Eastern Counties were later organized into a brigade under General Collett Leventhorpe, and the Home Guard
of other counties were also in active service.
Governor Vance in his address at White Sulphur Springs in 1875 after
a careful examination of the records of the Adjutant General's office, stated the North Carolina troops in the war as follows:
| “Volunteers at the outset |
64,636 |
| Volunteers subsequently received |
21,608 |
| Troops in unattached companies in Regiments of other States |
3,103 |
| Regular troops in States's service |
3,203 |
| Conscripts sent to the front |
18,585 |
| Senior Reserves |
5,686 |
| Junior Reserves |
4,217 |
| Home Guard |
3,962 |
| |
125,000” |
And these figures are as correct as it is possible to make them.
The Senior and Junior Reserves were organized into Regiments and were
trained troops and were incorporated into the Army and were therefore to be numbered with the Regular forces of the Confederacy.
The
figures for the Confederate Army, now accepted, were estimated by Dr. Joseph Jones and were approved by General Cooper, the
Adjutant General of the Confederacy. (See p. 287, 7th Vol., Southern Historical Society papers). “The available Confederate
force capable of active service in the field did not during the entire war exceed 600,000 men; and of this number not more
than 400,000 were enrolled at any one time.”
However, at page 500, Vol. 12, Confederate Military History, the
total number borne on the Confederate Muster Roll on January 1st,
1864, is stated at 472,781; but these figures include the absent as well as the present, the prisoners in Northern prisons
and the sick at home as well as all absent without leave. Indeed it is estimated that not more than 200,000 Confederate soldiers
ever were present in the Camps and ready for battle at any one time.
The entire Military population of the eleven seceded
States was 1,064,193; and that of North Carolina was 115,369, being one ninth of the whole.
Military population embraces
all white males between the ages of 18 and 45 without regard to any physical or mental infirmity or religious scruples; and
making some allowance for these exemptions, the Military population of North Carolina would be diminished by several thousand.
Taking
the entire enrollment of Confederate Troops at 600,000 and North Carolina's contribution at 125,000, it appears that she furnished
something more than one fifth of all the soldiers who were enrolled beneath the flag of the Confederacy, although her military
population was only one ninth of the whole.
Of those present for duty, it would seem that North Carolina had a much
larger proportion than would have naturally fallen to her lot. It was the policy founded in wisdom to keep her regiments full
and effective and not to multiply her organizations. We find that the enrollment of some of her regiments aggregated 1800;
as some were killed or died, new men replaced them and the organizations were thus maintained effective until towards the
very end of the war.
There were altogether 529 Regiments and 85 Battalions of infantry in the Confederate service,
and enough of the other branches of the service to make the entire force equivalent to 764 regiments of 10 companies each.
(Colonel Fox's Regimental Losses, page 553). Of these organizations, Virginia had somewhat more than one tenth and North Carolina
some-what less than one tenth. How full North Carolina kept her regiments relatively is demonstrated by the fact that with
less than one tenth of the organizations, she furnished one fifth of the soldiers. It is apparent that relatively her organizations
were kept fuller than those of other States.
AGGREGATE--529 regiments, and 85 battalions of infantry; 127 regiments and 47 battalions of cavalry; 8 regiments
and 1 battalion of partisan rangers 5 regiments and 6 battalions of heavy artillery; and 261 batteries of light artillery.
In all, equivalent to 764: regiments of 10 companies each.
C.S. REGULARS-- 7 regiments of infantry; 6 regiments of cavalry; and one battery of light artillery.
BORDER STATES-- 21 regiments, and 4 battalions of infantry; 9 regiments, and 5 battalions of cavalry; and 11 batteries
of light artillery.
NORTH CAROLINA-- 69 regiments, and 4 battalions of infantry; 1 regiment, and 5 battalions of cavalry; 2 battalions
of heavy artillery; and 9 batteries of light artillery.
And the same conclusion must be reached when we consider the losses in battle. The valor of the Confederate troops from
the different States was much the same. The fortunes of the battlefield brought heavy losses to regiments from every State
without much discrimination. Evidently then, losses on the battlefield measurably indicate the numbers engaged from the different
States.
Of the Confederate losses on the battlefield and died from wounds, North Carolina's proportion was more than
25 per cent. The entire Confederate loss was 74,524, and that of North Carolina was 19,673, which was more than one fourth.
(Fox's Regimental Losses, page 554). It would seem therefore that on the basis of losses, one fourth of all the troops engaged
in the battles of the war, were from North Carolina.
Now turning to the statistics in regard to deaths by disease,
59,297 are reported to have died of disease, of whom 20,602 were North Carolinians. (Fox's Regimental Losses, p. 554). As
her troops were no more liable to disease than those from other States, and perhaps not so much so since they were better
cared for, it would seem from this that her enrollment approximated one third of the entire enrollment of the Confederate
Army. These indications irresistibly lead to the conclusion that North Carolina was constantly represented in the field by
a much larger number of soldiers present for duty than any other State.
Killed in Action
| STATE |
Killed
(Officers) |
Killed
(Enlisted) |
Total |
Died of Wounds
(Officers) |
Died of Wounds
(Enlisted) |
Total |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| North Carolina |
677 |
13,845 |
14,522 |
330 |
4,821 |
5,151 |
Died from Diseases
| STATE |
Officers |
Enlisted |
Total |
|
|
|
|
| North Carolina |
541 |
20,061 |
20,602 |
Death Total
| KIA |
Wounds |
Diseases |
Total |
| 14,522 |
5151 |
20,602 |
40,275 |
|
|
|
|
The white population of Virginia was 1,047,299 and her military population was 196,587. The entire population, black and white, of that part of Virginia subsequently cut off was about 400,000, leaving
the State of Virginia with a larger white population and a larger military population than North Carolina.
The white
enlistments in the Federal Army for North Carolina were 3,146; and the white enlistments in the Federal Army from West Virginia
were 31,872.
If four tenths of Virginia's white population should be assigned
to West Virginia, and six tenths to the State of Virginia, her military population being six tenths of the entire military
population according to the census, would be about 120,000.
While that is larger than the military population of North Carolina, yet
the military strength of these States was so nearly equal that a comparison can justly be made between them to illustrate
how fully and nobly North Carolina performed her duty to the Confederacy.
The losses attributed to Virginia (See Fox's
Regimental Losses, p. 554) were killed outright on the battlefield, 5,328, and died of wounds, 2,519, a total of 7,847. There
is no reason why Virginia's losses suffered on the battlefield should not have been as accurately reported as those of North
Carolina. North Carolina's losses are reported at 19,673; Virginia's at 7,847, from which it appears that North Carolina lost
on the battlefield more than twice as many soldiers as Virginia did.
The same authority states that Virginia lost 6,947
from disease, and North Carolina lost 20,602, nearly three times as many.
The inference is irresistible, that North
Carolina contributed more men to the Confederate service than Virginia did.
At page 553, Fox states that North Carolina
had 69 regiments and 4 battalions of infantry; one regiment and five battalions of cavalry and 2 battalions of heavy artillery
and 9 battalions of light artillery. As a matter of fact it appears that North Carolina furnished 84 regiments, 16 battalions,
and 13 unattached Companies, besides the companies and individuals serving in commands from other States, and 9 regiments
of Home Guards, and the militia rendering short terms of duty. Vol. 4, p. 224, Reg. Histories. Virginia is credited with 65
regiments and 10 battalions of infantry, 22 regiments and 11 battalions of cavalry, one regiment of partisan rangers, one
regiment of artillery and 53 batteries of light artillery. But how many of these organizations were maintained with their
full complement of men ready for active duty does not appear. It does appear however that North Carolina furnished more than
120,000 soldiers including Home Guard out of a total enrollment of 600,000, leaving only 480,000 to be apportioned among the
other States. It also appears that her losses both on the battlefield and by disease indicate that her contribution to the
Confederate Army was somewhat more than the proportion of one to five, while her military population stood in proportion of
one to nine.
This record is one that every Confederate in North Carolina can recall with the utmost pride and satisfaction.
It sustains the claim made in behalf of our people that they sent to the war for Southern Independence a greater number of
soldiers in proportion to population than any other Southern State, and that they suffered the heaviest losses.
| Total Civil War Killed and Dead |
|
| Total Number of Civil War Killed, Dead, Mortally Wounded, Wounded, Missing and Captured |
| Dead Civil War Soldiers |
|
| Dead Civil War Soldiers |
(Sources and additional reading below.)
Recommended Reading: War Crimes Against
Southern Civilians. Description: The sobering and brutal consequences of the Civil War off the battlefield
are revealed in this examination of atrocities committed against civilians. Rationale for the Union's "hard war" and the political
ramifications of such a war set the foundation for Walter Cisco's enlightening research. In a series of concise and compelling
chapters, Cisco chronicles the "St. Louis Massacre," where Federal authorities proceeded to impose a reign of terror and dictatorship
in Missouri. Continued below...
He tells of the events leading to, and the suffering caused by, the Federal
decree that forced twenty thousand Missouri civilians into exile. The arrests of civilians, the suppression of civil liberties,
theft, and murder to "restore the Union" in Tennessee are also examined. Women
and children, black and white, were robbed, brutalized, and left homeless in Sherman's infamous raid through Georgia. Torture
and rape were not uncommon. In South Carolina, homes, farms, churches, and whole towns disappeared in flames. Civilians received
no mercy at the hands of the Union invaders. Earrings were ripped from bleeding ears, graves were robbed, and towns were pillaged.
Wherever Federal troops encountered Southern Blacks, whether free or slave, they were robbed, brutalized, belittled, kidnapped,
threatened, tortured, and sometimes raped or killed by their blue-clad "liberators." Carefully
researched, largely from primary sources, the book includes notes and illustrations. This untold story will interest anyone
exploring an alternative perspective on this period in American history. Review:
"...blows the lid off the conspiracy of silence about the violent, mass-murdering origins of the American Leviathan state..."
-- Thomas J. DiLorenzo, LewRockwell.com
Recommended Reading: This Republic of Suffering:
Death and the American Civil War. Description: More than 600,000 soldiers lost their lives in the American
Civil War. An equivalent proportion of today's population would be six million. In This Republic of Suffering, Drew Gilpin
Faust reveals the ways that death on such a scale changed not only individual lives but the life of the nation, describing
how the survivors managed on a practical level and how a deeply religious culture struggled to reconcile the unprecedented
carnage with its belief in a benevolent God. Throughout, the voices of soldiers and their families, of statesmen, generals,
preachers, poets, surgeons, nurses, northerners and southerners come together to give us a vivid understanding of the Civil
War's most fundamental and widely shared reality. Continued below...
Publishers Weekly: Battle is the dramatic centerpiece of Civil War history; this penetrating study looks
instead at the somber aftermath. Historian Faust (Mothers of Invention) notes that the Civil War introduced America to death
on an unprecedented scale and of an unnatural kind—grisly, random and often ending in an unmarked grave far from home.
She surveys the many ways the Civil War generation coped with the trauma: the concept of the Good Death—conscious, composed
and at peace with God; the rise of the embalming industry; the sad attempts of the bereaved to get confirmation of a soldier's
death, sometimes years after war's end; the swelling national movement to recover soldiers' remains and give them decent burials;
the intellectual quest to find meaning—or its absence—in the war's carnage. In the process, she contends, the
nation invented the modern culture of reverence for military death and used the fallen to elaborate its new concern for individual
rights. Faust exhumes a wealth of material—condolence letters, funeral sermons, ads for mourning dresses, poems and
stories from Civil War–era writers—to flesh out her lucid account. The result is an insightful, often moving portrait
of a people torn by grief.
About the Author: Drew Gilpin Faust is president of Harvard University, where she also holds the Lincoln
Professorship in History. Dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study from 2001 to 2007, she came to Harvard after
twenty-five years on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of five previous books, including Mothers
of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in the American Civil War, which won the Francis Parkman Prize and the Avery
Craven Prize. She and her husband live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Recommended Reading: Life and Death in Civil
War Prisons: The Parallel Torments of Corporal John Wesly Minnich, C.S.A. and Sergeant Warren Lee Goss, U.S.A.
Description: More than anything, Civil War soldiers feared becoming a prisoner of war. Among the deadliest prisons for Confederates
was Rock Island Prison in Illinois. One of the most notorious for Northern prisoners was Georgia's Camp Sumter – better
known as Andersonville. Dysentery, starvation, exposure to harsh weather, and brutal mistreatment killed more men in prisons
than were killed at Gettysburg, the war's deadliest battle. Continued below...
The gruesome reality of Civil War prison life is found in the personal stories
of those who suffered it. Two such victims were Corporal John Wesley Minnich – a Southern teenager from Louisiana –
and Sergeant Warren Lee Goss of Massachusetts. In Life and Death in Civil War Prisons, these two common soldiers become uncommon
symbols of the largely untold under-life of the American Civil War. It is a penetrating, unforgettable portrait of the worst
of the war – the military prisons of the North and the South. The book strips the war of its romance and pageantry.
What is left is the hardship and horror of the war – and the extraordinary courage of American soldiers from both North
and South. Reviewer: Books on the American Civil War appear in a seemingly
never-ending stream, and so it's inevitable that many good ones get lost in the cascade and never receive the attention they
deserve. J. Michael Martinez's Life and Death in Civil War Prisons is one of these. It's really an excellent study, well written,
nicely illustrated, and painstakingly researched (as its 40-odd pages of closely-printed endnotes and bibliography attest).
Much has been written about the "black and reeking pits" that Civil War
prisons generally were. Neither side was prepared for prisoners of war when the conflict began. After the parole system broke
down, already bad prison conditions got significantly worse as prisoners on both sides began to pile up. Horrible privations
were experienced by Federal prisoners in southern camps, largely because the south simply didn't have the wherewithal to take
better care of them. In the north, Secretary of War Stanton bulldoggishly made the decision to retaliate against southern
prisoners, ordering that their food allowances be decreased. Things went from bad to worse. The
merits of Martinez's approach to telling the story is that he uses the experiences of two prisoners, Cpl. John Wesley Minnich
from the south (a displaced Pennsylvanian who relocated to Louisiana) and Sgt. Warren Lee Goss from the north (a Bostonian).
Minnich was sent to Rock Island Prison, a piece of rock in the Mississippi River on the Iowa border. Goss, captured more than
once, became something of a reluctant expert on southern prisons, being held at different times in Libby, Belle Isle, and
the notorious Andersonville and Florence stockades. In recounting the prison experiences of Minnich and Goss, Martinez not
only provides an excellent account of Civil War prisons in general. He also tells a fascinating story of two men who lived
through horrible conditions. But Martinez does something else as well.
In his careful and persuasive account of Civil War prisons (one of his merits is that he never exaggerates; for example, he
shows that although Rock Island was bad, its mortality rate was about half that of Andersonville), he reminds us that the
American Civil War was a most uncivil war in many respects. This is an ugly fact which needs to be remembered, but which is
too often forgotten in our romanticization of the conflict.
Recommended Reading: Not War
But Murder: Cold Harbor 1864. Description: In June of 1864,
the Army of the Potomac attacked heavily entrenched Confederate forces outside of Richmond, hoping to break the strength of
Robert E. Lee and take the capital. Facing almost certain death, Union soldiers pinned their names to their uniforms in the
forlorn hope that their bodies would be identified and buried. Furgurson sheds new light on the personal conflicts that led
to Grant’s worst defeat and argues that it was a watershed moment in the war. Offering a panorama rich in detail and
revealing anecdotes that brings the dark days of the campaign to life, Not War But Murder is historical narrative as compelling
as any novel. Grant himself even wrote of Cold Harbor, "I regret this assault more than any one I ever ordered."
Why? Grant understood that he "got stomped and 'owned'" by Lee. Continued below...
Library Journal: On June 3, 1864, the Union Second, Sixth, and Eighteenth
Corps assaulted Confederate breastworks at Cold Harbor outside Richmond, VA. The resulting bloodbath amounted to U.S. Grant's
worst defeat and "Bobby" Lee's final great victory. In his latest book, native Virginian and Baltimore Sun correspondent Furgurson
(Chancellorsville, 1863) vividly retells the well-known story of how the friction between Grant and his insecure direct subordinate,
George Meade, poisoned the Army of the Potomac's whole chain of command. By contrast, he depicts Lee as a commander beset
by poor health and impossible logistical problems who brilliantly deployed his meager forces and soundly thrashed his overconfident
adversary, thereby saving the rebel capital and extending an unwinnable war by nearly a year. The book is rich in word pictures
and engaging anecdotes if not in untilled history. Furgurson considers the wounded left to suffer with the dead between the
lines while Lee and Grant quibble over protocols of recovery; the disastrous affect of poor maps and impassable terrain on
the Federal assault; and Grant's immediate need to bring Lincoln a battlefield victory before the 1864 presidential election.
Furgurson's contribution is his evocative retelling of a great American military tragedy. Recommended for public and academic
libraries.
Recommended Reading: Sherman's March: The
First Full-Length Narrative of General William T. Sherman's Devastating March through Georgia and the Carolinas.
Description: Sherman's March is the vivid narrative of General William T. Sherman's devastating sweep through Georgia and
the Carolinas in the closing days of the Civil War. Weaving together hundreds of eyewitness stories, Burke Davis graphically
brings to life the dramatic experiences of the 65,000 Federal troops who plundered their way through the South and those of
the anguished -- and often defiant -- Confederate women and men who sought to protect themselves and their family treasures,
usually in vain. Continued below...
Dominating these events is the general himself -- "Uncle Billy" to his troops,
the devil incarnate to the Southerners he encountered. What gives this
narrative its unusual richness is the author's collation of hundreds of eyewitness accounts...The actions are described in
the words, often picturesque and often eloquent, of those who were there, either as participants -- Union soldiers, Confederate
soldiers -- in the fighting and destruction or as victims of Sherman's frank vow to 'make Georgia howl.' Mr. Davis intercuts
these scenes with closeups of the chief actors in this nightmarish drama, and he also manages to give us a coherent historical
account of the whole episode. A powerful illustration of the proposition put forth in Sherman's most famous remark. A well-researched narrative. It captures the mood of the soldiers, and it graphically
depicts the suffering that the army inflicted on those unfortunate persons who happened to be in its path. Death, murder,
killing, resistance are all discussed from both the Northern and Southern eyewitnesses.
Recommended Reading: Pathway to Hell: A
Tragedy of the American Civil War. Description: We have heard and read about the total Civil War
killed, wounded, and missing-in-action - now we read also about emotional death and mental scars. Shell shock, battle
fatigue, post-traumatic stress disorder, lack of moral courage: different terms for the same mental condition, formal names
that change with observed circumstances and whenever experts feel prompted to coin a more suitable descriptive term for the
shredding of the human spirit. Continued below...
Although the specter of psychological dysfunction has marched alongside
all soldiers in all wars, always at the ready to ravish minds, rarely is it discussed when the topic is America’s greatest
conflict, the Civil War. Yet mind-destroying terror was as present at Gettysburg and Antietam as in Vietnam and today in Iraq
and Afghanistan. Drawing almost exclusively from extensive primary accounts, Dennis W. Brandt presents a detailed case study
of mental stress that is exceptional in the vast literature of the American Civil War. Pathway to Hell offers sobering insight
into the horrors that war wreaked upon one young man and illuminates the psychological aspect of the War Between the States.
Recommended Reading: The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and an Unnecessary
War. Description: Most Americans consider Abraham Lincoln to be the greatest president in history. His legend
as the Great Emancipator has grown to mythic proportions as hundreds of books, a national holiday, and a monument in Washington,
D.C., extol his heroism and martyrdom. But what if most everything you knew about Lincoln were false? Continued below...
What if, instead of an American hero who sought to free the slaves, Lincoln were in fact a calculating politician
who waged the bloodiest war in American history in order to build an empire that rivaled Great Britain's? In The Real Lincoln,
author Thomas J. DiLorenzo uncovers a side of Lincoln not told in many history books and overshadowed by the immense Lincoln
legend. Through extensive research and meticulous documentation, DiLorenzo portrays the sixteenth president as a man who devoted
his political career to revolutionizing the American form of government from one that was very limited in scope and highly
decentralized—as the Founding Fathers intended—to a highly centralized, activist state. Standing in his way, however,
was the South, with its independent states, its resistance to the national government, and its reliance on unfettered free
trade. To accomplish his goals, Lincoln subverted the Constitution, trampled states' rights, and launched a devastating Civil
War, whose wounds haunt us still. According to this provocative book, 600,000 American soldiers did not die for the honorable
cause of ending slavery but for the dubious agenda of sacrificing the independence of the states to the supremacy of the federal
government, which has been tightening its vise grip on our republic to this very day. You will discover a side of Lincoln
that you were probably never taught in school—a side that calls into question the very myths that surround him and helps
explain the true origins of a bloody, and perhaps, unnecessary war.
Sources: Fox, William F. Regimental Losses in the American Civil War (1889); Dyer,
Frederick H. A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (1908); Phisterer, Frederick. Statistical record of the armies of the
United States (1883); Phisterer, Frederick. New York in the War of the Rebellion (1890); Hardesty, Jesse. Killed and died
of wounds in the Union army during the Civil War (1915): Wright-Eley Co.; National
Park Service; Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies; Library of Congress; National Archives; US Census Bureau;
The Union Army (1908); Five Points in the Record of North Carolina in the Great War of 1861-5, N.C. Literary and Historical
Society (1904), pp. 73-79; Confederate Military History, vol 12; The Civil War, Strange and Fascinating Facts, Burke Davis;
Congressional Research Service; Department of Veterans Affairs; Naval Historical Center; Walter Clark's Regiments: An Extended
Index to the Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-1865.
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