The Civil War killed as many Americans as all our other wars combined. The “official” Civil War toll is about 625,000, but my research suggests that that’s bogus, because it doesn’t count men who were so sick or so badly wounded that they were discharged, and died soon afterward. By way of comparison, ALL OTHER war deaths total 695,000.
*Of course the Civil War toll includes both sides, and to balance things we should include American Indian deaths in the “all other wars” total.
*Anyhow the Civil War killed maybe 700,000 out of a population of 28 million (2.5% of the total, or 5% of American males). World War II killed 406,000 out of 132 million (three-tenths of one percent, again overwhelmingly male).
*I wanted to look at how the Civil War affected us locally, and I’ve been using W. W. Clayton’s 1879 History of Steuben County to see what the local death toll was, and whether there were any particular battles or prisons that accounted for large numbers of Steuben men. (Clayton gives a town-by-town list of names, usually with detail on each man’s service. His list is known to be incomplete, but it’s probably the best we’ll have.)
*Illness was the big killer of the war, and I suspect that nearly all of the unspecified deaths are actually due to illness. A startling number died at their mustering point of Elmira, before they even left the Southern Tier. No doubt all those men packing together created problems with sewage and with drinking water. But on top of that, many men had never strayed far from their farm or their hamlet. Packed together with thousands of others, they suddenly encountered illnesses they had never faced before, reacted to them severely, and died accordingly.

*Clayton shows a total of 5231 Steuben men in the service.

Died of Illness 099; Unspecified 176 Probably mostly illness; Battle Causes 165; In Prison Camp 049; Accident 007; Suicide 002: TOTAL 498 (9.5% of those who served).

*However this total is known to be low. Clayton’s reports on Howard, Hartsville, and Prattsburgh are lacking death tolls. His report on Wayland only reports deaths for those residents who enlisted in that town. For those who enlisted elsewhere – about half of the group – he has no death reports. Therefore we can conclude that the death toll is well over 500.

*Highest number in service: Bath (455)

*Highest number died in service: Corning (44), Bath (43)

*Highest percentage died in service: Troupsburg (62/222 = 28%)

*The largest single source of death (other than illness) is the Confederate prison system (49).

*The second largest single source is Andersonville Prison by itself. (24). The Andersonville commandant was hanged after the Civil War’s only war crimes trial. (Most prison deaths are probably from illness or starvation, rather than from direct attack by guards.)

*Besides the 24 Andersonville deaths, the total of 49 also includes deaths at Salisbury (6), Florence (4), and Libby Prison (4). Some of those who died in prison no doubt succumbed to wounds they had already suffered before they were captured.

*Besides looking at total death rates, I wanted to see whether particular battles, prisons, or causes took heavy tolls… since men generally served alongside their neighbors, one fierce battle could devastate a whole community.

*Major death tolls attributable to particular battles: Antietam 18; Wilderness 16; Dallas (13) + New Hope Church (3) = 16; Gettysburg 11; Second Bull Run 7; Fredericksburg 6; Chancellorsville 6; Resaca 4; Sabine Crossroads 4.

*Major death tolls attributable to particular campaigns.

*Atlanta Campaign (25 total): Dallas 13; New Hope Church 3; Resaca 4; Marietta 1; Peachtree Creek 3; Atlanta 1.

*Overland Campaign (20 total): Wilderness 16; Spottsylvania 3; Cold Harbor 1.

*Maryland Campaign (19 total): Antietam 18; South Mountain 1.

*Siege of Petersburg (10 total): Petersburg 7; Hatcher’s Run 3.

*Peninsula Campaign (8 total): Williamsburg 2; Fair Oaks 1; Seven Days Battles 5, broken out as Oak Grove 1, Gaines Mill 1, White Oak Swamp 2, Unspecified 1.

*Thus the single battle taking the highest death toll of Steuben men is Antietam… unsurprising in that despite machine guns, poison gas, and all the other killing machinery of modern total war, Antietam remains the bloodiest day in American military history. Moreover, remember that Antietam took place on a single day, whereas many other battles (Gettysburg, Wilderness, Chancellorsville) lasted multiple days.

*The single campaign taking the highest death toll of Steuben men is the Atlanta Campaign.
The fact that the Dallas + New Hope Church total equals the total for the Wilderness suggests fierce fighting, or else very bad leadership… possibly both.

*The American Civil War, because of many innovations in tactics and technology, has been called the first modern war. Part of what happened in this war was that the killing technology got far ahead of the saving technology. Weaponry foreshadowed the 20th century, but surgery and medical care weren’t much advanced from when the Duke of Marlborough was fighting King Louis XIV, back in the early 1700s. I imagine that one of Marlborough’s surgeons could have stepped into a Civil War hospital tent and started operating without causing any comment.

*It’s also true that while technology and tactics were evolving, some commanders didn’t get the memo. “Pickett’s Charge” at Gettysburg, ordered by Robert E. Lee, was an example of a commander reverting to the outdated Napoleonic tactics he had learned at West Point… and inflicting a murderous death toll on his own men.

*And, of course, none of this counts those Steuben men that we KNOW came home missing limbs, having lost the use of limbs, blinded, deafened, debilitated, emotionally and psychologically scarred.