U.S. Civil War Took Bigger Toll Than Previously Estimated, New Analysis Suggests
The Civil War -- already considered the deadliest conflict in American history -- in fact took a toll far more severe than previously estimated. That's what a new analysis of census data by Binghamton University historian J. David Hacker reveals.Hacker says the war's dead numbered about 750,000, an estimate that's 20 percent higher than the commonly cited figure of 620,000. His findings will be published in December in the journal Civil War History.
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HOW MANY MIA-KIA WHERE THERE IN THE CIVIL WAR?
I agree with Mr. Baxter. Case and point: My ggrandfather, Samuel McCamish, Pvt. 43rd TN, CSA, was listed with the sick and wounded prisoners after Vicksburg (NARA film, Rec. No. 2, M2072.)His muster record also says he was transported from field hospital No. 2 September 24 [ on the S.S. Lancaster No. 2 to New Orleans and on to Mobile.](This last info taken from an obituary of a severely wounded soldier transported the same day.) He did not return home to Bradley Co., TN. His muster record only says he was transported on the 24th. Finis. I'm sure there are many who likely met the same end and whose records don't reflect their death. There are no surviving obituaries in the Athens or Cleveland papers from that time due to the swift entry of the Union army to that region after the Battle of Vicksburg, fires, etc. which to refer to, so Southern records are as said, scanty.
I have been documenting gravestones of Iowa veterans across the state and have over 4,000. There have been times I have found a discharged veteran dead within a day or two of release from the hospital. My guess is they were discharged to die at home, some never made it, others arrived home as corpses. I have also found sites where it is reported Confederate prisoners who did not make it to Rock Island Prison camp are buried without markers and probably ended their existance as "prisoners" but are unaccounted for since they died in route to the camp.