Deadly Artillery

[blue_zouave]

In the "Best General" thread, Tamaroa posted:
While two thirds of the casualties were caused by disease the remaining 250 thousand killed were dispatched as follows:95% mini balls, 3% artillery and 2% bayonet wounds.

Larry B. commented:
I know that the bayonet was a small factor in casualties, but artillery only accounted for 3%? That is astounding to me!

Zou will add:
Those figures come from the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, and the numbers were collected from medical records of soldiers who made it to hospitals. Most of the victims of artillery were killed outright or died before they could be brought to field hospitals. There's no way to know how many actually died from artillery fire.

By the way, great board, I hope to be active here.

Zou

Hi Zou I have not been here too long myself.I love the board too and hope we get alot more civil war discussions going!I love it and like picking up information from great posts.

[gary]

Read Longstreet's account of Fredericksburg where the Union suffered around 13k casualties. Longstreet estimates that 5k were caused by minie ball and the remainder, well, that honor goes to the artillery.