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.)
*So far I’ve been through nine of 32 towns (Addison through Cohocton, in alphabetical order). Bath had the highest number of soldiers (455) and the highest number of deaths (43, or 9%). But Avoca, with 175 men and 39 deaths, had the highest loss rate (22%).
*Interestingly the next highest enlistment number came from tiny Caton (226 soldiers and one sailor) – ahead of Canisteo (197), Cohocton (196), Addison (193), Avoca (175), Campbell (173), Bradford (125), and Cameron (96). Caton and Cameron were tied at 7% with the lowest death rates so far.
*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 the whole community.
*Unsurprisingly the highest deaths were from illness (56) and unspecified (85). 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.
*What about more direct military causes? Ten men died as prisoners – seven of them at Andersonville, whose commandant was hanged after the Civil War’s only war crimes trial. (Most of these deaths are probably from illness or starvation, rather than from direct attack by guards.)
*What about more direct battle causes? Eight were listed as killed, but without particular battles being identified, and one was described as having been killed “by guerrillas.”
*The big battles took their big tolls: four men in the disaster at Chancellorsville, three in the famous victory at Gettysburg, three in the flawed victory at Antietam… still the bloodiest day in American military history, even after the giant wars of the 20th century.
*But five died in the little-regarded Battle of Dallas… not the city in Texas but a much smaller place in Georgia… plus three at the related Battle of New Hope Church. Sherman’s army was driving on Atlanta, and from May 26 to June 8 both armies sparred and probed, each trying to dislodge or bypass the other or, in the Confederate case, trying to get away. So far, then, the Dallas/New Hope Church Battles are the largest military killers of Steuben men in the Civil War, just edging out Andersonville… but there are still 23 towns to go, including Corning and Hornellsvile, with populations to rival Bath’s. It will only get grimmer as we go.