Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-01-25
Miseellaneuus &eaaing.
The CONFEDERATE DEAD.

Full Number Will Never BE Known-What
the Available Figures Show of Losses by
Battle and Disease.
New York Sun.
If the president means by caring for
the Confederate dead that national
cemeteries shall be provided for them
as in the case of the Union dead of the
war, then the question, Where are the
Confederate dead? becomes one of
vital Importance. So does another.
How many Confederates died and were
killed during the Civil war?
The official returns of death losses
in the Confederate armies on file in the
war department in Washington are
incomplete and unsatisfactory. Nearly
all the rolls of Alabama troops are
missing, and those of none of the states
are complete. The actual extent of
their losses by disease and casualties
in battle must remain matter of con-
lecture. The losses in the Union
armies from the complete pay rolls,
according to the original tabulation
supposed to have been accurately kept,
were subsequently largely increased in
the item of "killed or died of wounds"
based upon the papers officially known
as the "final statements" and through
the investigation of pension claims.
This tabulatiop, as finally revised and
corrected, shows that those who died
of disease in the Union armies were in
the ratio of two to one of those killed
in battle, or died of wounds. That is
to say, los, ,6S9 men were killed or died
of wounds, while 224,5S6 Union SOL
diers died of disease.
Almost Immediately after the war
was over the national government set
on foot measures to identify its vast
army of dead in so far as it was posi-
BILE to collect the remains in national
cemeteries and mark their graves.
Seyenty-six cemeteries were establish
ed throughout the Union, which in.
cludes one in the city of Mexico, where
the dead of the Mexican war are COL
lected, northern and southern lying
side by side in that far off cemetery.
The majority of these beautiful ceme-
teries, carefully cared for and upon
which large sums of money are an
nually expended, are in the southern
states. But thousands of the Union
dead lie buried in the north, where
they died in hospital and while at
home on sick leave. In nearly all cases
the government owns the ground, and
all the improvements are of lasting
character. There has been all endeavor
to erect grave markings which would
last for ages. In these cemeteries the
soldiers gra,e is marked by small
marble block projecting about q foot
above ground, sometimes with his
name carved upon it, but generally it
merely carries number, and in book
in the superintendent's charge there is
a corresponding number, with the dead
mans name opposite, or the sad word
unknown"
Now, this great work of collecting,
indentifying and marking the burial
places of the Union dead was begun
Immediately after the war, when it was
easy to come at every source of infor-
nation concerning these deceased SOL
diers, yet it is shocking fact that out
of a total of 36O,2O7 Union dead the
graves of 139, ,495 are marked un-
known, Notwithstanding the great ia
cilities then existing for Identification.
Of 33,520 Union Negro soldiers
buried in these cemeteries, 2O,5O5 are
unknown.
Under such favorable circumstances,
if more than one-third of the Union
dead had to be marked unknown, what
will be the result of any systematic
attempt to collect and mark the graves
of the Confederate dead, 35 years after
the WARP Probably hardly one-tenth
of the occupants of the graves found
could, with any degree of certainty, be
identified, besides which the burial
place of thousands of the Confederate
dead in the nature of things cannot be
found at all. More than $4,000 Union
men, killed or died of disease, were
lost entirely, aud are not carried on
these cemetery rolls as either known
or unknown. These figures are appal-
ling, yet it is easy to comprehend their
magnitude in view of all the circum-
stances-the wars length, wide theatre
and numerous battles and skirmishes
in dense woods and broken ground.
1t is likely that the proportion of Con-
federate dead, considering their made.
quate facilities of all kinds for caring
for the sick in hospital and wounded
on the battlefield, completely lost to
all ken, would be fully as great as the
Union figures, although their losses
were considerably less in the aggregate
while greater in percentage owing to
the fact that such great proportion
of Union regiments were never in
battle at all.
Therefore in case of a systematic
effort to care for the southern dead as
the Union dead were cared for, should
the presidents suggestion contemplate
such a scope, the question, "Where
are the Confederate dead ?" assumes u.
deep significance.
In any national participation in the
care of the Confederate dead it is more
than likely that the character of the
undertaking will be similar to that in
connection with the Union dead, but
owing to the lapse of time the results
will be far less satisfactory for the rea-
son given.