Indeed, it is so complex that even years later no one has, and perhaps no one will, assemble a specific, accurate set of numbers, especially on the Confederate side. A true accounting of the number of men in the armies can be approached through a review of three primary documents: enlistment rolls, muster rolls, and casualty lists.
Following any of these investigative methods one will encounter countless flaws and inconsistencies--the records in question are little sheets of paper generated and compiled years ago by human beings in one of the most stressful and confusing environments to ever exist.
Enlistment stations were set up in towns and cities across the country, but for the most part only those stations in major northern cities can be relied upon to have preserved records. Confederate enlistment rolls are virtually non-existent. Muster rolls, generated every few months by commanding officers, list soldiers in their respective units as "present" or "absent.
Overlooking the common misspelling of names and general lack of specificity concerning the condition of a "present" or "absent" soldier, muster rolls provide a valuable look into the past. Unfortunately, these little pieces of paper were usually transported by mule in the rear of a fighting army.
Their preservation was adversely affected by rain, river crossings, clerical errors, and cavalry raids. Casualty lists gives the number of men in a unit who were killed, wounded, or went missing in an engagement. However, combat threw armies into administrative chaos and the accounting done in the hours or days immediately following a battle often raises as many questions as it answers.
For example: Who are the missing? Weren't many of these soldiers killed and not found? What, exactly, qualifies a wound and did armies account for this the same way? What became of wounded soldiers? Did they rejoin their unit; did they return home; did they die? A wholly accurate count will almost certainly never be made.
The effects of this devastating conflict are still felt today. Civil War Article. Civil War Casualties. Union dead after the Battle of Gettysburg, Gettysburg, Pa. Photo by Alexander Gardner.
Civil War Service by Population Even with close to total conscription, the South could not match the North's numerical strength. Southerners stood a significantly greater chance of being killed, wounded, or captured.
His estimates were based on Confederate muster rolls--many of which were destroyed before he began his study--and many historians have disputed the results. A study suggests a previously widely accepted death toll of the US Civil War may actually be way under the mark.
How many did perish in this conflict, fought before the era of modern record-keeping and DNA identification? The US Civil War was incontrovertibly the bloodiest, most devastating conflict in American history, and it remains unknown - and unknowable - exactly how many men died in Union and Confederate uniform.
Now, it appears a long-held estimate of the war's death toll could have undercounted the dead by as many as , The Civil War began in when southern slave-holding states, fearing the institution of slavery was under threat in a nation governed by northern free states, seceded from the US after the election of President Abraham Lincoln.
It ended in with the surrender of the southern, or Confederate forces, to the Union army; slavery was officially abolished by constitutional amendment that year. The war devastated the economy and society of the agrarian southern states where most of the fighting occurred, and killed so many Americans it was impossible directly to tally the dead.
In the s, governments in the US and the Confederacy the name the southern states took for their secessionist entity were shoddy record keepers. They had no comprehensive system of registering births and deaths, and military muster rolls were intended more for tabulating troop strength than recording fatalities.
And in the US Civil War, like all wars, men deserted or defected, bodies sank forever into the mud or were blown to bits or were misidentified, and troops initially listed as wounded in action subsequently perished from their injuries. Confederate records were largely destroyed in the war's final stages, when the Union army captured its capital Richmond, Virginia. For more than a century, it has been accepted with a grain of salt that about , Americans died in the conflict, with more than half of those dying off the battlefield from disease or festering wounds.
All along, however, historians sensed that number underrepresented the death toll. In Gettysburg, Abraham Brian, a free black man who owned a small farm near Cemetery Ridge, left with his family, as did Basil Biggs, a veterinarian, and Owen Robinson, an oyster seller. Nearby in Chambersburg, some contrabands—former slaves who sought refuge with the Union Forces—were kidnapped by Confederate calvary units.
The Emancipation Proclamation stated that those seeking freedom from states of rebellion could not be re-enslaved. Accordingly, the Union refused to hand over contrabands to the Confederates, and this, too, this prompted retaliation. Confederate soldiers threatened to burn the homes of white residents who were sheltering contrabands.
Often, Confederate troops assumed that free blacks were contrabands solely because of their skin color. After the battle, residents of what had only days before been a peaceful agricultural and college town were in despair. There was literally blood running through the streets, as the dead were piled up in horrific numbers. Slain animals were left to rot. The fields were scorched and barren.
Farmers had to rely on the army or government to supply food. Wounded soldiers languished, waiting for medical attention. Camp Letterman, an army field hospital, was established east of Gettysburg and triaged patients until they could be transported to permanent facilities in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington.
Nurses for the United States Sanitary Commission, a Union relief organization staffed largely by women, provided essential care and comfort. Residents of Gettysburg managed to bury the dead in a temporary cemetery.
However, prominent members of the community lobbied for a permanent burial ground on the battlefield that would honor the defenders of the Union. The field tents and temporary shelters came down.
The battlefield remains a testament and memorial to the events of July 1—3, Gettysburg Gettysburg Animated Map. Close Video. Adams County, PA Jul 1 - 3, How it ended Union victory. Before the Battle On June 3, soon after his celebrated victory over Maj. During the Battle. Union 93, Aftermath Union. Estimated Casualties. Union 23, The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. Questions to Consider 1. What role did enslaved workers play in the Battle of Gettysburg? How did the Battle of Gettysburg and its aftermath affect residents of the Pennsylvania town? Gettysburg: Featured Resources. Civil War Article. Civil War Video.
Civil War Biography. Civil War Battle Map. Gettysburg: Search All Resources. All battles of the Gettysburg Campaign.
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