The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-08-28
Deaths in the Civil War.

There is nothing surprising in the ratio
which the deaths from disease in the
present war bear to the deaths from
wounds received In battle. In Col. PH1s
TEREB's statistical records OF the civil wal
1t is clearly shown that twice as many
Union soldiers died Of disease as were
killed outright in action or afterward died
OF wounds.
In Gen. FRY's report OF March II, 1865,
to the Secretary Of War, the aggregate OF
men killed or dying Of their wounds was
put at SO, 1876 and the number dying OF dis.
ease at 1S3,2s7. There we're discharged
for disability, according to this report,
224, 1900, and nc doubt the deaths of a por.
ton Of these might be traced to wounds or
to disease acquired in tho service.
The Adjutant-Generals report OF Feb. z,
1869, put the deaths in battle or OF wounds
at 7S, 1891, and the deaths from disease at
149, O43, with a reserve Of 55, 297 from
unknown causes" Here the relative pro-
portions, it will be observed, between the
two great sources of death remained about
the same as in the Provost Marshal Gen
erals report.
The estimate of the Surgeon-Genera in
his report Of Nov. IL, 1870, was 35, 4oS
killed in action and 40, POS dying Of wounds,
or an aggregate Of "a, 1913, against 1876, 21e
dying Of disease. There, again, we have
the same result Of fully twice as many
dying Of disease as were killed outright
or died Of their wounds. Col. PHIsTERER
notes that the many who died while
prisoners, or at home on furlough,
are not included in the Surgeon Generals
figures, and also that while that officer is
the more likely to be right as to deaths
from wounds or disease. on which his sub
ordinates report, the Adjutant-General is
the better authority as to deaths in
battle. He therefore combines the two
records in an estimate of A, 23S killed
in battle and 6, 2o5 dying of wounds,
making q total Of 8 ,443, against 1885,
216 dying OF disease. He adds "a, 1874
deaths from unknown causes and 526
from suicide, homicide or execution, get
ting q total Of 304,369. 1t is noticeable
that the War Departments own summary
was 3O3, Col. PH1sTERER would al
low, however, about 10, 900 deaths for those
who were missing and never accounted for
as prisoners or otherwise, and who almost
certainly had not deserted. This would
swell his total to $4,000, or about ii per
cent. of the number of men who were en-
rolled during the war"
This great mortality, enormously greater
than that OF our conflict with Spain, was
due to the length of the civil wal, which in
cluded a large number Of severe battles.
In the total Of more than two thousand en-
gagements and other operations there were
scores where the loss in killed and wounded
on the Union side alone ran into the
thousands, while in some great battles
it exceeded 10000. Again, many Union
regiments were in the enemy's pres
ence for long periods, from six months to
years, engaged more or less frequent
ly, whereas only a small portion OF our
troops in the present war nave been under
fire at all, on account Of the brevity Of the
and by far the greater part have
never left the country.
1t will, therefore, be seen that an addi-
tlonal reason exists in the present instance
for a great disparity between the deaths
from disease and those from battle and
1t may be said with some truth
that, since the vast majority Of our troops
not only have never encountered the en-
but have been at home in of
our selecting, instead Of those imposed by
The enemy's presence, the loss from disease
should be proportlonally less than in the
civil war. But, on the other hand, all the
OF the civil war was in our own
and no one doubts the deadliness
Of the Cuban climate in midsummer to
hose unused to 1t. We also had to estab-
ish some camps very far south. as at
where the best Of health conditions
It thiss season TIRE not possible.
There were treated in the army hospitals
~ medical officers during the civil war
.,o49, 64S cases, and the record of deaths
nay suggest that campaigning then
on very much the same sort of
as now, except that the fear of
elbow fever cut no such figure then as 1t
las this year. The largest number of
leaths among tho patients, 33,949, was
gunshot wounds. Next came chronic
IiarrhGa, 8 o,83e, with acute diarrhaa
ddlng 4,29l to the general class and
cute d~ysentery $3.50. Third came typhoid
ever, 29,336, with $500 ascribed to typho-
lalariai fever, 4,855 to remittent, and
,l64 to congestiye intermittent. Fourth
ighest were the deaths from inflammation
I the lungs, 1891. There were 7,O5s
eaths from smallpox and varioloid and
,177 from measles. !
But We could not know the total mortal 1
y fairly ascrlbable to the civil war unless {
% could trace the fate OF those who were =
.ischarged for disability. The figures last 4
Doken OF do not include those who died. {
v pEisoners o. while on leave Of ahSenoa 4