The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1916-07-12
FINAL COST Of
The CIVIL WAR
Has Not Yet Been Entirely
Settled.
ONE OF WORLDS GREAT WARS
That Could Possibly Have Been
Settled Beforehand On
Peace Basis.
DARK DAYS OF VIVID MEMORY

In the light of the titanic TWEEN
tieth century war it is of timely in
terest to compare the cost and Zig
ures OF our great Civil War OF hult
a century ago.
when the Civil War broke out"
says Uncle Dudley" in the Boston
Globe, THE total population of the
United States was about 100000.
The total population of the Confed-
crate States was given by jefferson
Davis to be 100000. Later esti-
mates say 100000. Of this total.
3,5O0,0OO were slaves"
No doubt Mr.. Davis included
merely the white population of the
South, which accounts for the wide
discrepancy in the foregoing esti-
mates.
THE total number of men engag-
ed in the war was 2,772,04S," con-
tinues the writer in the Globe.
THE Confederacy marshaled 70O.-
600 in 1868, when it reached the
crest of its wave. The Union troops.
from first to last, numbered more
than 2,OOO,9uO men. Such were the
human assets of that civil strife;
they Wee human liabilities also of a
most costly sort. For when We turn
to the financial page of that war not
even the present European upheav-
al, vast as it is, can altogether dwarf
the conflict of half a century ago,
when We consider the interval.
THE immediate and direct cost of
the Civil War to the North was 49,
33O,000,000. The cost of military
pensions from 1861 to date amounts
to $4,614, 643,267. The interest on
the war debt for the same period
was more than $4,000, 600, 900. The
war expenditures of the State and
local governments are reckoned at
$1,000, 100000. The abnormal army
an dnaval expenditures occasioned
during and after the war came 10
0O,0OO.OOO.
"The total cost of the Civil War
to the North alone, reckoned merely |
in money, has so far amounted to !
$12,444, 643,26T. And We are still
paying for it. By similar estimate
the war has cost the Southern J
States $4,000, 900, 900"
But these are only such losses as
can be set down in black and white. :
There is another loss that can only /
be written in red. says the writer.
I'm four years fighting the North
lost 395,52S men. Those who later
died of wounds and diseases MAKE
that loss 100000. The estimate for
the Confederate States is another
half million, and these, of course,
came out of smaller population
which their loss still more desper-
ately impoverished. If Jefferson
Davis estimate was correct, the re-
bellion cost the South one life out
Of eycrY ten. There are days and
names of 81 at terrible year of 1864
at the mere mention of which. mid
dle-Cged memories still sicken. One
Is Cold Harbor, where 5000 men
fell in one hour Another is the
where Grant lost $4,000
men and Lee $4,000.
"The institution of human slavery
cost the United States two white
lives for every seven black slaves
living in the Southern States in
1861. So far 1t has cost the United
States about $4,000 for each of
hose slaves; and the price is still
going up"
How much cheaper it would have
been for both sides If the slaves
could have been bought up by the
general Government and set free, as
has been suggested. But this after
thought which seems so simple and
patent a solution now, was not con-
'idered remote possibility in 1860.
Il 1t was thought Of at all. The con-
iitions and the state OF the public
temper in the contending camps
we're such that suggestion of adjust
ng the quarrel amicably and In a
,rsiness-like way could find no foot
hold anywhere. And. perhaps. af-
e, all. the irreconeilable controver-
" ecald never have been settled