Causalities in Civil War

[Bennettga]

I know the south's record keeping/muster rolls were less than stellar. However, I was researching the casualties by state and I was particularly interested in my home state of Georgia. Georgia had some of the best brigades and was in every major engagement. For instance: 4 of the 8 brigades that went in July 2nd at Gettysburg were Georgian (Anderson, Benning, Wofford, Semmes). With that said, battlefield.org has Georgia's casualties at 7,500 for the war. Well, at Gettysburg, Georgia lost 3,750 (roughly half of the total). Once you add the 7 days, 2nd Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Overland Campaign and then add the western theater….this number of 7,500 can't be right. I need someone who has the time and resources to do a state by state research showing number of regiments/brigades by state for each battle as well as the casualties for each state.
Thanks!

 

[lupaglupa]

I imagine someone has done this work.

 

[JOHN42768]

I know the south's record keeping/muster rolls were less than stellar. However, I was researching the casualties by state and I was particularly interested in my home state of Georgia. Georgia had some of the best brigades and was in every major engagement. For instance: 4 of the 8 brigades that went in July 2nd at Gettysburg were Georgian (Anderson, Benning, Wofford, Semmes). With that said, battlefield.org has Georgia's casualties at 7,500 for the war. Well, at Gettysburg, Georgia lost 3,750 (roughly half of the total). Once you add the 7 days, 2nd Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Overland Campaign and then add the western theater….this number of 7,500 can't be right. I need someone who has the time and resources to do a state by state research showing number of regiments/brigades by state for each battle as well as the casualties for each state.
Thanks!

Welcome, enjoy

 

[rpkennedy]

From what I can find, Georgia is said to have lost about 25,000 deaths during the war. Frankly, that sounds about right to me.

Ryan

 

[rpkennedy]

Georgia's rosters are surprisingly well organized, especially among Confederate records. I had a great deal of luck when I was researching Wright's Brigade at Gettysburg some years ago.

Ryan

 

[Stryker65]

I know the south's record keeping/muster rolls were less than stellar. However, I was researching the casualties by state and I was particularly interested in my home state of Georgia. Georgia had some of the best brigades and was in every major engagement. For instance: 4 of the 8 brigades that went in July 2nd at Gettysburg were Georgian (Anderson, Benning, Wofford, Semmes). With that said, battlefield.org has Georgia's casualties at 7,500 for the war. Well, at Gettysburg, Georgia lost 3,750 (roughly half of the total). Once you add the 7 days, 2nd Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Overland Campaign and then add the western theater….this number of 7,500 can't be right. I need someone who has the time and resources to do a state by state research showing number of regiments/brigades by state for each battle as well as the casualties for each state.
Thanks!

Unfortunately, there exists no comprehensive record of this for the Confederate army that I know of, but there is one of these for the Union army — Dyer's Compendium, which you have probably heard of already. Additionally, Battles and Leaders Vol. 4 had some rough estimates of Confeferate losses.

 

[RedRover]

The Busey's (J.W. and T.W.) have struggled for years searching Confederate records just for deaths in the Battle of Gettysburg.
The "official" reports, based on returns so far as received at the time of reporting, record CSA deaths there at 2,592. Which is still frequently quoted by historians.

The federal army, and other sources, say there were at least 7,000 CSA burials on or about the battlefield.

To the present the Busey's have found (as of 2017) some record of at least 5,441 deaths in action and at least another 1,161 died in the field hospitals, etc.

Johnston for the first half of the Atlanta campaign quoted medical returns, so far as received, to suggest his army lost only several thousand battle casualties. Hood countered that he had suffered losses of ca. 22,000. Hood took command of the army. He reported losses in the battles for Atlanta at several thousand, though corps commander Hardee subsequently reported his own corps lost that many.

It was the Confederate Army Adjutant General's job to compile the records of the army and determine what happened to whom, so far as reported on unit rolls, hospital registers, etc. etc.. This office ceased operations, mid-stream, on April 2, 1865 with the abandonment of Richmond.