Did twice as many men die off the battlefield as on it in the Civil War?

Question

While I was researching an ancestor, Hiland A. Main, who had his arm shot off in the Civil War, I came across a startling fact: in his regiment 112 men killed on various battlefields, and 234 men who died of disease or other causes. Was that generally the case? Over twice as many off the battle field as on it?  I'm thinking now, not only was he lucky surviving a terrible wound, but also lucky to survive whatever passed for hospitalization on the Virginia battlefield in those days. Any details about what that  was like?

Comments

Thank you to all those who responded to my question about the higher number of people who died off the battlefield than on. I'm going to set a link to this page in my profile because of the quality (and variety) of responses. I think, unless you were in the military, most people would be surprised by these numbers.

Bob S.

Answer 1

Yes, and this is true of many other wars.

In the Revolutionary War, about 8,000 died in combat, 17,000 to other causes, probably disease and exposure.

In the War of 1812, 2,260 died in combat but 12,740 died to other causes.

Mexican-American War, 1,733 in combat, 11,550 to other causes.

Civil War actually had a higher proportion of soldiers killed in battle - probably due to the nature of the fighting: huge numbers of men standing in front of each other and shooting and a huge amount of men fighting in a rather small space.  ~ 215,000 died in combat, ~ 450,000 died to other causes, again, likely disease and exposure.

We got "better" at killing people moving forward, World War I had 53,402 combat deaths to 63,114 to other causes.

WWII - 291,557 to combat and 113,842 to other causes.  From what I've read, because medicine and sanitation was much better by WWII, the number of men killed by disease was drastically reduced and that the vast majority of those killed died as a result of accident: ship sinks, truck rolls over, airplane crashes in fog, etc.

By Korea, 33,686 to combat and only 2,830 to other causes.

Vietnam 47,424 combat deaths, 10,785 to other causes.

big difference in Korea and Vietnam in the ratio of accidental death to combat death.

Afghanistan 1,833 combat deaths to 383 other causes.

Iraq 3836 combat deaths to 961 other causes.

Purely my speculation here but I'd say that the higher ratio of accidents in Iraq is due to driving.  Troops drive a lot in Iraq but fly more in Afghanistan and driving is about one of the most unsafe things to do, especially in heavy military vehicles.

And completely off topic, it was safer to be stationed as a US service member in Iraq in 2006, at the height of the war, than to be stationed in the US or Germany in 1973.  The reason: traffic accidents.  More soldiers died in America and Germany, driving their own cars, by ratio, than died in Iraq during the war.  So it was safer to be in war in 2006 than home in 1973.

Comments

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war

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I don’t have my source for this statistic so my number may be inaccrate.  Over a 10-year period during the 1990’s(?), 7 servicemen died as a result of Coke machines falling on them.

Answer 2

Bob, there is a lot of good reading on this. The numbers as I know them for the North is 110,000 combat deaths, 250,000 other, and for the South 95,000 combat deaths, and 165,000 other. This put the total lives lost in the Civil War at just over 600,000. You can find different numbers in different readings, but yes, more died from other than combat related deaths.

Answer 3

Florence Nightingale produced this chart

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Nightingale#/media/File:Nightingale-mortality.jpg

to bring home to people how many deaths were caused by the dire conditions in army hospitals.

Answer 4

This doesn't distinguish cause of death, but a 2011 study based on census records argued that previous estimates were 20% low, so the total was something like 750,000. There's a summary on the BBC site

In the 91st Pennsylvania Infantry (which I've been studying for many years), 190 men died while in the regiment, 113 of whom were killed in action or died of wounds. (I provide some details here.) But some men died shortly after being discharged, and that number certainly understates deaths due to service. (One man's discharge was rescinded when he died two days later, but that didn't happen for others who died shortly after they were discharged.)

Unfortunately, the numbers we have are only very rough approximations.

Answer 5

Then too, it depends on how you classify a casualty of war...my 2nd Great Grandfather was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness, and died three days later of those wounds, which was at the time of the Battle at Spotsylvania Court House but he was not in that battle.

Answer 6

Dysentery, Typhoid Fever, measles, pneumonia, malaria some of the main culprits, a lot just due to lack of sanitary procedure.

Answer 7

If you get a chance, visit a Civil War re-enactment and talk to the re-enactors who portray surgeons and nurses. They can show you the crude tools used to amputate limbs, and sometimes they have bullets with teeth marks for when the injured had to "bite the bullet" when no anesthesia was available. Sometimes the only anesthesia was whiskey! Blood was everywhere and tools and equipment reused without sterilization. Watch the PBS series Mercy Street to see what life was like in a Civil War "hospital" which was often just someone's fancy house taken over by the military! Bandages were not sterile either, but were usually homemade by groups of women who wanted to do their part. The local quilting bee ladies would make bandages, blankets, socks, and hats for the soldiers to help the war effort.. For more information on the Ladies aide societies, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladies%27_aid_societies

Comments

Excellent information! Thanks.

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Thanks! We are Civil War re-enactors, so we meet people who tell us about the conditions and reality of medical care during the war. It is not a pretty picture! It helps me understand what my grandmother's cousin Jacob Schirck III must have gone through between being shot at Second Bull Run and dying a day or two later.