The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-17
THE DEAD OF THE WAR.
THE APPALLING rs OF LOSSES ny
BATTLE AND BIZ DISExSE.
largo Percentage or tho "Uaknown"-The
Dead In Southern Prisona-Ditnouity OF
making an Approximate List - Eighty
Three Cemeteries where They Arc Buried.

Making m Approximate List - Eighty
Three Cemeteries where They Arc Buried.
investigation long ngo determined the queer
fact Of the utter impossibility Of determining
with absolute accuracy the number OF deaths
from all causes Of Union soldiers during the
war of the rebellion. The grand aggregate, of
course, is approximately known. Within the
Union lines tho records OF deaths were SO
systematically kept and filed from time to
time In tho War Department, there preserved.
and subsequently brought together and collated
80 carefully that the aggregate number Is now
settled az near as 1t possibly ever can be set
tied. The statistics arc near enough to abso-
Lutte certainty TO be satisfactory to historians.
The uncertain quantity, the great stumbling
FLOCK to any close approximation of the mel.
ancholy aggregate, IL the deaths among pris-
oners of war In the hands of the enemy. The
larger proportion Of the official records Of the
Southern prison depots were lost or destroyed
in the hurly.burly of the wind-up. There
were at least n dozen prisons. of which only par
tial records or next to none at all were secured.
The death lists of several Of the most impor-
tant stations have never been found, and the
only mode by which tho number of the dead at
such, and many others, was satisfactorily OBJ
tanned was by cxhuming and counting the
skeletons. This was such an almost impos.
sible task that it was not wholly carried out,
Ahu thuo Nv wa III u SLioh NCuu ~
Southern prisons remains TO this day and will
ever remain an unknown quantity.
At Salisbury, n. C., for instance, one of the
leading and oldest of the Confederate pris.
ons, the dead were buried in tiers, sometimes
two, three, and four deep, in eighteen trenches
parallel to each other, averaging 24O feet in
length. No headboards or other marks Of
identification were set up; no record OF the
names of the dead seems to have been kept-at
oil events, none has been found; no collins or
boxes were used; the miserable bodies, in
cased in their own squalid rags, were bun
died into the trench in the most expeditions
manner,..'side by side, in n row 24o feet long,
over which a thin coating OF dirt was spread;
. then another Tier Of dead was put down on
top Of this bottom layer of bodies, until the
receptacle was full, when another trench was
opened. The bodies in these trenches have
never been exhumed and counted, and in the
absence of official lists 1t thus happens that no
exact knowledge of the number of Union
dead buried at Salisbury is obtainable. Tes.
timony ELECTED during the trial Of Major Gee,
the last Confederate officer in charge Of this
prison, indicated that as many as 10000 SOL
diers might be buried in these trenches, per-
haps some of whom were Confederates, and
others, again, political prisoners and monde
scripts. Officers OF the United States Quarter.
masters Department, sent to Salisbury i'm
mediately after the war to put this burial
place in order, after a careful examination Of
all sources OF information, estimated the num-
Der at l2,112. This figure has been strenu-
ously disputed. 1t seems probable that the
true number lies between 1900 and 1912,
doubtless more than the first and considerably
less than the last.
These facts concerning the Salisbury prison
alone must prove to any unbiased mind how in
dnnnita and uncerfain the ORIGINAL atafanepfa
put out Of the deaths of Union soldiers in South.
ern prisons must have been. and necessarily
80 from the very insufficient data upon which
they were based. So long as thirty-two years
ago an official statement of them was made very
hastily by Secretary Stanton, fixing the ag-
gregate at 26.32s. These . were the then
ascertained deaths by names from army rolls.
rolls of honor. prison rolls, &c. but this aR-
gregate sum did not include the unknown
estimated dead, which at that time swelled the
known list to more than 36, 900 men.
But aside from all estimates, the records Of
the War Department now bear upward Of
5000 specific names of soldiers who died in
Southern prisons. The additional names to the
number stated by Mr.. Stanton in 1865 have
been ascertained through testimony taken by
the.Pension Office in the disposal of applications
for pensions, and the record is growing from
year to year, though in q decreasing ratio. The
authenticity Of the figures is unquestioned.
There are thousands Of others whose names
will never be known. 1t is estimated by those
in the War Department familiar with the NOR
tuary record of the war that not less than
10000 Union prisoners died in the South. Be-
sides Salisbury, alluded to above, 1905 lie
buried at Andersonville, $3.50 at Richmond,
3,016 at Florence, s. c., and 1928 at Danvllle.
Va. These were tho original figures. Be-
sides Salisbury, Andersonville. Florence, Rich.
mond, and Danville. there were sixty-four other
prison posts scattered throughout tho Con.
federacy during the war.
Under an order issued June Q, 1884, by Adjt..
Gen. X. C. Drum, Mr.. Joseph w. Kirkley, then
having charge Of all the official returns and
kindred data of the Union Army, prepared q
statistical statement Of the deaths in the Union
Army during the entire war, from all causes
killed in action, died of wounds, died of dis
ease. killed after capture, suicides, executed
by military authority, executed by the enemy
drowning and other accidental deaths. muir
dered, died Of sunstroke, and all other known
and unknown causes. Mr.. Kirkley was en-
gagged upon this herculean task almost pre-
cisely n year. assisted by a corps of intelligent
clerks. On the ODD of May. 1885. he made his
report, embodied in a pamphlet making sew
enteen pages of figures in fine type. This wa,
accomplished twenty years after the war
Those who are familiar with Mr.. Kirkley't
conscientious p~ainstaking in an official stats
teal job of that kind know that he has ex
hausted all the avenues of information con
tanned in the archives OF the department, II
other words, exhausted the subject, and thai
his findings are the complete and indisputabl,
summing up OF the whole field. They were
accepted as final by the War Department, ant
are now the figures used by all historians.
Omitting the full details of his tabular state
ments. 1t Is sufficient to give tho totals o
deaths found by this statistician.
Officers. Men. Total
Total non.prisoners. . 1853 $40. eos $50, O9l
Total prisoners ...... 2lU 29,27v 2v.<Vl
Grand aggregate 1884 349.94+ 800. 90,
Since this statement was made, in 1885,
through Investigations mainly OF the Pension
ONCE, as before stated, an addition of 779 name
of dead soldiers has been made. almost wholly
charged to the prisoner account. swelling tn,
known deaths Of Union soldiers during the wa
TO the grand but terrible aggregate OF 800, 2O7
The terrors OF battle are ever before the eye