Total Civil War Killed and Dead

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TOTAL DEAD AND WOUNDED CIVIL WAR SOLDIERS
TOTAL AMERICAN CIVIL WAR CASUALTIES

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 and Dead.jpg
Total Civil War Killed, Dead, and Wounded Soldiers

Total Civil War Killed, Dead, and Wounded
Total Civil War Killed, Dead, and Wounded.jpg
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
Total Civil War Killed.jpg
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 by each state.jpg
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
Total Civil War Deaths, Died, and Killed.jpg
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
Total Civil War Casualties.jpg
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.
 
The total loss of the Confederate Armies in killed and mortally wounded will never be definitely known, and can be stated only in round numbers. A summing up of the casualties at each battle and minor engagement--using official reports only, and in their absence accepting Confederate estimates--indicates that 94,000 men were killed or mortally wounded on the Confederate side during the war. See also Organization and Strength of Union and Confederate Military: The Armies of Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery and American Civil War History: THE Facts and Statistics for Casualties, Killed, Deaths, and Dead.

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

**Does not include 4523 Navy fatalities, and 460 Marines killed and mortally wounded. Total U.S. Fatalities = 364,511. See also Civil War navy and marines and American Civil War History, Facts, and Statistics.

Dead Civil War Soldiers at Battle of Gettysburg
Dead Civil War Soldiers Battle of Gettysburg.jpg
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 
Regiments of Cavalry 
Regiments of Infantry  60 
Total number of Regiments  69 
Battalions of Artillery 
Battalions of Cavalry 
Battalions of Infantry 
Total number of Battalions  11 
Unattached Companies, infantry  6” 

Map Civil War States.jpg
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 Civil War Killed and Dead.jpg
Total Number of Civil War Killed, Dead, Mortally Wounded, Wounded, Missing and Captured

Dead Civil War Soldiers
Dead Civil War Soldiers.jpg
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

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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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