NC seeking more accurate death count

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Accurate count of Civil War dead sought

Jule Hubbard | Posted: Monday, May 28, 2012 1:08 pm

The N.C. Office of Archives and History is seeking a more accurate count of the number of North Carolinians who died in the Civil War as part of its observance of the 150th anniversary of this horrific conflict.

This undertaking, called the Civil War Death Study, is detailed on the North Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial website (http://www.nccivilwar150.com/). The website has a wealth of other information about North Carolina in the Civil War, including digital copies of diaries and dozens of letters written during the war.

Since North Carolina wasn’t among states that legislatively authorized and funded commissions for the 150th anniversary, the N.C. Office of Archives and History formed an in-house committee to guide and promote agency-sponsored observances in 2006.

According to the website, recent preliminary research within the state’s muster rolls and service records indicates that about 33,000 to 35,000 Confederate soldiers from North Carolinians died rather than the traditional estimate of 40,000.

Whether 33,000 or 40,000, North Carolina had the largest losses of any state and felt the adverse impact from them for generations.

By comparison, 8,910 soldiers from North Carolina died in World War II, 2,965 in the Korean War, 2,375 in World War I and 1,573 in the Vietnam War. These official U.S. Department of Defense numbers came from the N.C. Museum of History website.

Furthermore, the traditional estimates of North Carolina’s Civil War dead completely neglect the black and white North Carolinians who died serving in the Union army. While this number is estimated at 2,000, the N.C. Civil War Sesquicentennial initiative includes seeking a more accurate count and identification of these individuals.

They include men like Pvt. Rufus Laws of Moravian Falls, who was killed in 1864 while serving in the U.S. Army. Laws was among an estimated 90 men from Wilkes in the 3rd N.C. Mounted Infantry.

Current estimates also don’t include deaths that occurred during quasi- or non-military incidents. There were several such incidents in Wilkes and adjoining counties.

Although written history will always be subjective to varying degrees, we should strive for the most accurate historical accounts as possible if we are to learn from our past.

Efforts to determine an accurate count of the dead on both sides began almost immediately after the Civil War ended in 1865, under leadership of General James B. Fry, U.S. provost marshal general.

Under Fry, the U.S. War Department clerks pored over Union and captured Confederate muster rolls and other regimental records.

A report issued by Fry in 1866 stated that 279,689 Union soldiers and 133,821 Confederate soldiers died in the war. North Carolina was credited with having lost 40,275 men, including 19,637 due to combat and 20,602 from disease.

Since then, 40,000 has been the standard estimate of the number of North Carolinians who died in the Civil War and the basis for our claim of being the state with the most deaths during the war.

The Civil War Death Study includes analysis of published rosters and actual military service records, a study of contemporary North Carolina newspapers and a cemetery and gravestone survey.

The analysis began with reviewing information in the North Carolina Troops roster series, an unfinished N.C. Office of Archives and History project started in the 1960s as an effort of the North Carolina Confederate Centennial Commission.

Seventeen volumes in this series, organized by company and regiment, have been published. Each individual’s name and unit is recorded, as well as the year of his death and cause.

Civil War deaths resulted from disease more than any one single cause. Examples in the “other” category for causes of death include those who were murdered, committed suicide or suffered calamities such as being bitten by a spider or poisoned by eating a terrapin.

The 17 volumes don’t include the Senior Reserves, Home Guard, militia units, white and black Union units from North Carolina, Union volunteer regiments raised from Confederate prisoners-of-war and companies consisting of North Carolinians who served in other Confederate states’ regiments.

The military service records and other sources will be searched for information on these individuals.

For numerous North Carolina regiments and companies, muster rolls end in December 1864. Therefore, if an individual was present for duty in December 1864 but does not appear on any hospital documentation, casualty list, or is documented with a parole at Appomattox or Greensboro, his service record simply ends.

There is little or no data for many of the men who were captured, wounded or in Confederate hospitals at the end of the war. In many of these instances name searches in the 1870 census or research in family histories can determine whether they died in the war.

Not surprisingly, the quality of record keeping diminished and a lot of records were lost in the last year of the war. Records were also lost after they were captured.

The main catalyst for trying to ascertain more accurate numbers has been publication of the N.C. Office of Archives and History’s “North Carolina Troops” roster series.

This still unfinished project began in the 1960s as an effort of the North Carolina Confederate Centennial Commission.

Upon the termination of the commission in 1965, the N.C. Office of Archives and History took over the project. So far, 17 volumes have been published. The volumes, organized by company and regiment, attempt to identify all North Carolinians who served in both Confederate and Federal forces during the war.

http://www.journalpatriot.com/
 
Accurate count of Civil War dead sought

Jule Hubbard | Posted: Monday, May 28, 2012 1:08 pm

The N.C. Office of Archives and History is seeking a more accurate count of the number of North Carolinians who died in the Civil War as part of its observance of the 150th anniversary of this horrific conflict.

This undertaking, called the Civil War Death Study, is detailed on the North Carolina Civil War Sesquicentennial website (http://www.nccivilwar150.com/). The website has a wealth of other information about North Carolina in the Civil War, including digital copies of diaries and dozens of letters written during the war.

Since North Carolina wasn’t among states that legislatively authorized and funded commissions for the 150th anniversary, the N.C. Office of Archives and History formed an in-house committee to guide and promote agency-sponsored observances in 2006.

According to the website, recent preliminary research within the state’s muster rolls and service records indicates that about 33,000 to 35,000 Confederate soldiers from North Carolinians died rather than the traditional estimate of 40,000.

Whether 33,000 or 40,000, North Carolina had the largest losses of any state and felt the adverse impact from them for generations.

By comparison, 8,910 soldiers from North Carolina died in World War II, 2,965 in the Korean War, 2,375 in World War I and 1,573 in the Vietnam War. These official U.S. Department of Defense numbers came from the N.C. Museum of History website.

Furthermore, the traditional estimates of North Carolina’s Civil War dead completely neglect the black and white North Carolinians who died serving in the Union army. While this number is estimated at 2,000, the N.C. Civil War Sesquicentennial initiative includes seeking a more accurate count and identification of these individuals.

They include men like Pvt. Rufus Laws of Moravian Falls, who was killed in 1864 while serving in the U.S. Army. Laws was among an estimated 90 men from Wilkes in the 3rd N.C. Mounted Infantry.

Current estimates also don’t include deaths that occurred during quasi- or non-military incidents. There were several such incidents in Wilkes and adjoining counties.

Although written history will always be subjective to varying degrees, we should strive for the most accurate historical accounts as possible if we are to learn from our past.

Efforts to determine an accurate count of the dead on both sides began almost immediately after the Civil War ended in 1865, under leadership of General James B. Fry, U.S. provost marshal general.

Under Fry, the U.S. War Department clerks pored over Union and captured Confederate muster rolls and other regimental records.

A report issued by Fry in 1866 stated that 279,689 Union soldiers and 133,821 Confederate soldiers died in the war. North Carolina was credited with having lost 40,275 men, including 19,637 due to combat and 20,602 from disease.

Since then, 40,000 has been the standard estimate of the number of North Carolinians who died in the Civil War and the basis for our claim of being the state with the most deaths during the war.

The Civil War Death Study includes analysis of published rosters and actual military service records, a study of contemporary North Carolina newspapers and a cemetery and gravestone survey.

The analysis began with reviewing information in the North Carolina Troops roster series, an unfinished N.C. Office of Archives and History project started in the 1960s as an effort of the North Carolina Confederate Centennial Commission.

Seventeen volumes in this series, organized by company and regiment, have been published. Each individual’s name and unit is recorded, as well as the year of his death and cause.

Civil War deaths resulted from disease more than any one single cause. Examples in the “other” category for causes of death include those who were murdered, committed suicide or suffered calamities such as being bitten by a spider or poisoned by eating a terrapin.

The 17 volumes don’t include the Senior Reserves, Home Guard, militia units, white and black Union units from North Carolina, Union volunteer regiments raised from Confederate prisoners-of-war and companies consisting of North Carolinians who served in other Confederate states’ regiments.

The military service records and other sources will be searched for information on these individuals.

For numerous North Carolina regiments and companies, muster rolls end in December 1864. Therefore, if an individual was present for duty in December 1864 but does not appear on any hospital documentation, casualty list, or is documented with a parole at Appomattox or Greensboro, his service record simply ends.

There is little or no data for many of the men who were captured, wounded or in Confederate hospitals at the end of the war. In many of these instances name searches in the 1870 census or research in family histories can determine whether they died in the war.

Not surprisingly, the quality of record keeping diminished and a lot of records were lost in the last year of the war. Records were also lost after they were captured.

The main catalyst for trying to ascertain more accurate numbers has been publication of the N.C. Office of Archives and History’s “North Carolina Troops” roster series.

This still unfinished project began in the 1960s as an effort of the North Carolina Confederate Centennial Commission.

Upon the termination of the commission in 1965, the N.C. Office of Archives and History took over the project. So far, 17 volumes have been published. The volumes, organized by company and regiment, attempt to identify all North Carolinians who served in both Confederate and Federal forces during the war.

http://www.journalpatriot.com/

North Carolina Losses:

One-fifth of the Confederate losses in the Seven Days' battles near Richmond in 1862, one-third at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and one-fourth at Gettysburg were North Carolinians. Of the twenty-seven regiments suffering the highest casualties at Gettysburg, thirteen were from North Carolina; the twentieth-six North Carolina regiment suffered casualties of 86 per cent. General William R. Cox's brigade fired the last shots of the Army of Northern Virginia, and at Appomattox one-fifth of those who surrendered with Lee were from North Carolina. In the entire war, [Before total war loses were revised downward] 19,673 North Carolinians were killed in battle - more than one-fourth of the total Confederate battle deaths and 20,602 died of disease. North Carolina's total loss in battle and from disease was 40,275, which was greater than any other Confederate state.

Source: Hugh Talmage Lefler and Albert Ray Newsome, The History of a Southern State, North Carolina (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1963), pp. 430-431

While I am able for service I intend to stand by the cause while a banner floats to tell where Freedom and freedom’s sons still support her cause.”

Major Walter Clark of the North Carolina Junior Reserve Brigade in a letter to his mother
 
I have always wondered why the approxomations(is that a word? Spelling error?) of deaths were always so drastic, now I can see "The casualties were between 6,600 and 6,700" But it seems most of the casualties for battles are listed as "Between 3,000 and 7,000" Why is that?
 
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