67th Tigers
Captain
- Joined
- Nov 10, 2006
Grant never had a three day period where he lost as many men as Lee did losing at Gettysburg. Fewer men died in the year it took Grant to beat Lee, than in the previous three years of the war.
Grant never attacked three days in a row, so this is a bit disingenuous.
Of course fewer men died in one year than three.
July '61- June '62: 3,277 (of which 247 were from "wounds")
July '62 - June '63: 5,463 (1,919 "wounds")
July '63 - June '64: 2,739 (1,498), of the deaths 1,025 were in May and June, when Grant was campaigning (877 "wounds")
July '64 - June '65: 3,112 (1,140 "wounds")
14,591 deaths occurred in AoP hospitals, and 4,137 were during Grant's year.
9,787 died of non-wounds, 3,260 during Grant's tenure (14 of 48 months). Thus almost exactly 1/3rd of deaths by sickness occurred in the last 14 months (29%). Within rounding, men were dying at the same rate from disease, about 204 per month.
In the Overland Campaign only, Grant lost as many KIA as the AoP typically would in > 37 months by disease. To put it another way, the battle deaths in the Overland Campaign were greater than all the deaths from disease, accidents, suicide and sentence of the court up to that point.
The argument that the butchery is justified by not having ca. 200 men die to disease per month is not sustainable.