Bentonville Battle Casualty List Peculiarities

Reconstructed Rebel

1st Lieutenant
Joined
Jun 7, 2021
What - if anything- is going on here?
I routinely scan casualty lists looking for my somewhat obscure family names, and in reading the Bentonville battle list in the Raleigh NC Semi-Weekly Standard, published 3/24/1865, I was struck by the high number of wounds in the left hand. I've never seen this before. In the partial list below there are four solders in a row (!) listed as being wounded in the left hand. The officer list contains the type of wounds generally seen, but in the ranks there are multiple hand injuries listed.

At first I thought perhaps old guns were exploding in the hands of the soldiers - but on doing a Google search on battle wounds I came across an article saying that in WW 1 soldiers with wounds to their left hand or the top of their feet were separated from other wounded soldiers because they were suspected of inflicting wounds on themselves to avoid battle or staying in the trenches.
This is not an attempt to discredit these soldiers at all. But given that I think the Confederacy was clearly on its last legs at this point, if this is what was happening, these men were perhaps making the decision that going home and rebuilding their communities and supporting their families was a better option than dying in glory.

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It does make you wonder. In every battle both armies had stragglers and shirkers, but a wound in the hand is the proverbial " million dollar wound" that would get you out of the fighting for a considerable amount of time. In this case, time enough for the war to end.
I would think the foot or toe could become a common casualty.
Lubliner.
 
I would think the foot or toe could become a common casualty.
Lubliner.
Agreed. The WW1 article specifically mentioned wounds inflicted from above into the top of the foot - as I picture it- caused by a soldier shooting straight down - as being treated as suspicious.
Sort of off thread, but I read somewhere that because ACW soldiers needed to be able to bite off the end of cartridges in order to load guns in battle, some men, to avoid the draft, would have their front teeth pulled. Dental care was not as advanced then anyway, so maybe losing your front teeth was a small price to pay. You would be losing your teeth eventually anyway. Getting rejected for service was otherwise pretty hard to do.
 
No doubt there were self-inflicted wounds induced during the war. How widespread, i can't say, but in the case of men listed as wounded in action, there is every possibility that they suffered injuries to the hands, especially when fighting in the woods, etc.,

I should think since it was a goal not to expose ones self, or their soldiers, any more than necessary, the wounds to hands, etc. would not be too very uncommon.

Several of the men mentioned wounded in the hand were in the 7th Florida Regiment at Bentonville. They were wounded during an attack, according to Captain Robert B. Smith, who commanded the regiment in that attack, about 40 strong:

"I carried into the fight 40 enlisted men & 5 officers & lost 3 killed, 18 wounded & 2 missing total 23, a little over half. Such losses are almost unprecedented. As I was advancing upon the last line, leading my reg't. I was struck in the left breast by a minnie ball and at first though I had "gone up" as it had pierced the folds of my blanket & made some nasty looking holes. I turned very pale & felt like falling. Indeed I had all the symptoms of a very seriously wounded man. By the way the holes in my blanket looked I knew it could not have missed my heart scarcely any distance. I was just about to give up, when I thrust my hand into my bosom to feel for the hole & staunch the blood which lo! & behold! there was neither hole nor blood; the ball struck my oil cloth and it being folded several times & quite firm &glossy, the ball glanced off & thus saved my life. As soon as I perceived that I took fresh courage & ran forward until I again got ahead & led on my reg't. Though the balls whistled all around me yet I was spared. Right there I lost half of my reg't. I never saw men fall so fast before. The enemy concentrated their fire upon us & almost annihilated us."
It was a decided victory to our arms & will have a good effect. Sherman is flanking again, but old Joe is smart enough for him. A few of the Savannah local troops were engaged, a little, but they were stampeded. They little knew what soldering was before they came here. They now look upon us with awe, so also do the militia. On the 21st inst I wanted to advance our skirmish line & charge the enemy's pickets & some of the Savnh troops were in the line. I told them they must advance right up to the enemy's pickets without firing, as I wished to charge their main works & wanted loaded guns for that. But we hadn't gone in far before the Yankees opened fire & the gentlemen stopped & began to shoot. I couldn't make them cease & had to order them away & make a charge without them.
But they will soon learn & will make good soldiers. I think I've said enough about fighting, except that on the 20th the enemy charged us and we repelled them."

The military muskets and rifles of that period were manufactured for right hand firing, so the left-hand was presented foremost in taking sight, whether standing, or as was frequently the case, kneeling, or lying, and either in the open, or when taking aim from cover...

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The late Mr. Fred Wilder, Sr., of St. Petersburg, FL recalled to me meeting a Civil war veteran who came to his school, and had lost his right arm from the elbow. He told the kids he was ramming a cartridge, exposing that arm from his cover, and a bullet smashed his elbow...

In taking aim, the soldiers presented with their left hands exposed to the front, unless very well entrenched with head-logs, etc.

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Same with charge-bayonets:
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And when an attack in line was repulsed, evidently not uncommon for the line to fall back, and the men to take cover behind trees; sometimes in more or less long files... like illustrated here by Confederate veteran Alexander Hunter...
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There are descriptions of this among the Confederates attacking the Horseshoe Ridge at Chickamauga in September, 1863:

"The rebels scattered like sheep at this volley, hiding behind trees, logs."

"Simultaneously the support was ordered forward. As the Mississippians retired the deep-volumed shouts of the enemy told us plainer than could words that the enemy thought they had routed them. O, how differently we regarded the situation! It they could have seen them as we—halting, kneeling, lying down, ranging themselves in columns of files behind the large trees to enable us to get at the enemy with an unbroken front

There is similar example described at the Battle of Natural Bridge, Florida, in March, 1865.


By most accounts, the Confederates attached through the woods at Bentonville... and preferred to stay in them. A Confederate noted:

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The Junior Reserves at Bentonville also either fought laying in breastworks, or behind trees...
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In either case, presenting and firing would at least potentially expose the hands and face...

On the federal side, they note that the Confederate assaults, in line of battle, though fierce, were not pressed... their lines melting back into the trees, etc. on meeting heavy resistance or exposure to a murderous fire...

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No doubt there were self-inflicted wounds induced during the war. How widespread, i can't say, but in the case of men listed as wounded in action, there is every possibility that they suffered injuries to the hands, especially when fighting in the woods, etc.,
Great points. That could all well be, and I appreciate the observations. I only posted a small portion of the Bentonville casualty list obviously, which anyone can read, but as noted in the OP, I had never seen so many hand wounds mentioned in a single battle before, regardless of how it was fought.

The bravery I am not questioning, but rather wondering when the regular soldiers, regardless of what their officers may say, might start believing that living would serve the cause better than dying.
 
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