The Civil War (1861-1865) was the most devastating war in numbers of human causalities of any War this nation has fought. The Civil War resulted in the reported death of 618,222 men - 360,222 from the North and 258,000 from the South.
On the 3rd of April this year (3 April 2012) the New York Times published an article stating that the reported dead during the Civil War may be as much as 20% greater than was reported.[1]
New research in this area is challenging total numbers reported in 1889 by two Union Army veterans - William F. Fox and Thomas Leonard Livermore - in their "Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865".
Of the reported 618, 222 that died; 414, 152 died of disease; 250,152 in the North, 164,000 in the South.[2]
Total Deaths in the major American Wars [3]
|
War
|
Deaths
|
|
Revolutionary
War
|
4,435
|
|
War
of 1812
|
2,
260
|
|
Mexican
|
13,
283
|
|
Civil War
|
623,026
|
|
Spanish-American
|
2,446
|
|
World
War I
|
116,516
|
|
World
War II
|
406,742
|
|
Korea
|
54,246
|
|
Vietnam
|
57,939
|
Another interesting bit of information comes from the "Confederate Veteran" magazine of January 1895.[4]
An article in this magazine reports that the first NC Soldier killed during the war was a soldier named WYATT, a member of the famous Edgecombe Guard Commanded by Col Bridges. This was Private Henry Lawson WYATT, Company A, 1st North Carolina Volunteers and you can read about him here.[5] He was Killed in Action (KIA) on 10 June 1861 at the "Battle of Bethel" at Bethel Church, Virginia.
The article goes on to report that the last NC Soldier killed during the War was Cumming MEBANE of Madison, North Carolina. (Note: I could find no record for a Cumming Mebane; the closest was Cornelius Mebane from Alamance county though one muster roll states his home is Mebanesville, NC; This guy was wounded twice and a real hero; he lived through the war).
While Private WYATT was the first North Carolinian to die; the first Confederate soldier to die was Captain John Q. Marr of the 17th Virginia. He died 9 days earlier than Private Wyatt at Fairfax Courthouse, Virginia in a skirmish with Union troops. Capt. Marr was born in Virginia but he called North Carolina home.
Studies perform after the War here in North Carolina shows that 40,000 North Carolinians lost their lives during the War.[6]
North Carolina is also concerned with the death toll accuracies reported during the Civil War and has in progress a project called "The North Carolina Civil War Death Study". The findings of this study will be presented during the state Civil War Sesquicentennial Commemorations.
Recommended Links:
[4] S. A. Cunningham Editor, Confederate Veteran: Monthly magazine of Interest to Confederate veterans (Nashville, Tennessee: Volume 3, No. 1, January 1895), page 232.
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