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Title: Civil war Casualties. Post by: FryeVRCCDS0067 on June 07, 2009, 08:25:14 AM The new Gun Digest Collectors Guide has a article on collecting civil war firearms. In it they mention there were over one million casualties and over 620,000 war related deaths during the civil war. They go on to state that the entire population of the US at that time was 34.3 million. In other words one out of every 34 US citizens was wounded or killed in the War Between the States. That is an unimaginable percentage.
A guy I used to hunt with 30 years ago told me while sitting in the woods eating lunch long ago that his family had the original land grant for the farm we were hunting on. In other words it had been in his family since we became a country or before. He said they also had letters one of his ancestors had written while he was a (doctor?) in the civil war. One letter spoke of being wounded in an extremity and the overwhelming fear of infection and subsequent death or amputation. The weapons were brutal, more likely to wound you immediately and kill you miserably later. Medical care was barely above the voodoo stage. Those were some tough, determined people. I know there are many here who are very knowledgeable concerning the civil war. If any of the numbers I quoted from Gun Digest were wrong, please feel free to correct them. We’re riding into a truly historical area next week. Man, I can't wait. Title: Re: Civil war Casualties. Post by: thumper on June 07, 2009, 10:19:21 AM The United States Census for 1860 lists the population at 31,443,321.
There were 624,511 soldiers North and South killed in the Civil War. This amounts to approximately 2 percent of the entire population of the country died as a result of the war. When you factor in that almost all of the casualties would have been male then you have 4 percent of the male population killed. One out of every four Southern soldiers never returned home. It is generally assumed that only 1/3 of the dead were killed in battle. The other 2/3 died of disease. Now, consider this. The current population of the United States is approximately 306,000,000 people or 10 times the population of 1860. If this war were fought today there would be almost 6,250,000 dead in four years of fighting! Casualty figures for the Civil War are absolutely staggering. You folks are traveling to America's most hallowed ground.....I just wish I could be there with you. Paul :evil: Title: Re: Civil war Casualties. Post by: Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005 on June 07, 2009, 01:45:14 PM The Ten Costliest Battles of the Civil War
Based on total casualties (killed, wounded, missing, and captured) #1 Battle of Gettysburg Date: July 1-3, 1863 Location: Pennsylvania Confederate Commander: Robert E. Lee Union Commander: George G. Meade Confederate Forces Engaged: 75,000 Union Forces Engaged: 82,289 Winner: Union Casualties: 51,112 (23,049 Union and 28,063 Confederate) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #2 Battle of Chickamauga Date: September 19-20, 1863 Location: Georgia Confederate Commander: Braxton Bragg Union Commander: William Rosecrans Confederate Forces Engaged: 66,326 Union Forces Engaged: 58,222 Winner: Confederacy Casualties: 34,624 (16,170 Union and 18,454 Confederate) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #3 Battle of Chancellorsville Date: May 1-4, 1863 Location: Virginia Confederate Commander: Robert E. Lee Union Commander: Joseph Hooker Confederate Forces Engaged: 60,892 Union Forces Engaged: 133,868 Winner: Confederacy Casualties: 30,099 (17,278 Union and 12,821 Confederate) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #4 Battle of Spotsylvania Date: May 8-19, 1864 Location: Virginia Confederate Commander: Robert E. Lee Union Commander: Ulysses S. Grant Confederate Forces Engaged: 50,000 Union Forces Engaged: 83,000 Winner: Confederacy Casualties: 27,399 (18,399 Union and 9)000 Confederate) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #5 Battle of Antietam Date: September 17, 1862 Location: Maryland Confederate Commander: Robert E. Lee Union Commander: George B. McClellan Confederate Forces Engaged: 51,844 Union Forces Engaged: 75,316 Winner: Inconclusive (Strategic Union Victory) Casualties: 26,134 (12,410 Union and 13,724 Confederate) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #6 Battle of The Wilderness Date: May 5-7, 1864 Location: Virginia Confederate Commander: Robert E. Lee Union Commander: Ulysses S. Grant Confederate Forces Engaged: 61,025 Union Forces Engaged: 101,895 Winner: Inconclusive Casualties: 25,416 (17,666 Union and 7,750 Confederate) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #7 Battle of Second Manassas Date: August 29-30, 1862 Location: Virginia Confederate Commander: Robert E. Lee Union Commander: John Pope Confederate Forces Engaged: 48,527 Union Forces Engaged: 75,696 Winner: Confederacy Casualties: 25,251 (16,054 Union and 9,197 Confederate) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #8 Battle of Stone's River Date: December 31, 1862 Location: Tennessee Confederate Commander: Braxton Bragg Union Commander: William S. Rosecrans Confederate Forces Engaged: 37,739 Union Forces Engaged: 41,400 Winner: Union Casualties: 24,645 (12,906 Union and 11,739 Confederate) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #9 Battle of Shiloh Date: April 6-7, 1862 Location: Tennessee Confederate Commander: Albert Sidney Johnston/ P. G. T. Beauregard Union Commander: Ulysses S. Grant Confederate Forces Engaged: 40,335 Union Forces Engaged: 62,682 Winner: Union Casualties: 23,741 (13,047 Union and 10,694 Confederate) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #10 Battle of Fort Donelson Date: February 13-16, 1862 Location: Tennessee Confederate Commander: John B. Floyd/Simon B. Buckner Union Commander: Ulysses S. Grant Confederate Forces Engaged: 21,000 Union Forces Engaged: 27,000 Winner: Union Casualties: 19,455 (2,832 Union and 16,623 Confederate) Title: Re: Civil war Casualties. Post by: fudgie on June 07, 2009, 04:25:28 PM Wow those numbers are staggering! Theres more people dead at G-burg then in my whole county!
Title: Re: Civil war Casualties. Post by: thumper on June 07, 2009, 06:21:52 PM In reviewing these numbers it is essential to understand the terms being used.
The term "casualties" referrs to those soldiers listed as killed, wounded, and missing. While there were approximately 51,000 casualties at Gettysburg, the actual number of battlefield deaths is somewhere around 11,000 combined Union and Confederate for the three days of fighting. When the two armies left Gettysburg, a small central Pennsylvania town of 2,500, they left behind over 25,000 wounded men. While it has been romanticised in movies like Gone With the Wind and Glory, the fact is the American Civil War was a brutal and bloody affair. Title: Re: Civil war Casualties. Post by: Don07tncav on June 07, 2009, 06:47:15 PM There's a poignant post war southern song that brings the attitudes of some former Confederate soldiers to mind, here's a couple of stanzas:
Quote Three hundred thousand Yankees Is stiff in Southern dust; We got three hundred thousand Before they conquered us; They died of Southern fever And Southern steel and shot, I wish they was three million Instead of what we got. The war was indeed a horrible one, some of the soldiers diaries are something else. |