'Who, What, Why: How many soldiers died in the US Civil War?'

BBC News ^ | 4th April 2012 | BBC News

[the scotsman]

'A study suggests a previously widely accepted death toll of the US Civil War may actually be way under the mark. How many did perish in this conflict, fought before the era of modern record-keeping and DNA identification?

The US Civil War was incontrovertibly the bloodiest, most devastating conflict in American history, and it remains unknown - and unknowable - exactly how many men died in Union and Confederate uniform.

Now, it appears a long-held estimate of the war's death toll could have undercounted the dead by as many as 130,000. That is 21% of the earlier estimate - and more than twice the total US dead in Vietnam.'

[The Free Engineer]

And today we are told that restitution is owed for slavery. That debt has been paid.

[CodeToad]

“slave-holding South”

The North held slaves, too, contrary to public school teachings. In fact, several northern States had recently strengthened their slave laws in their constitutions and even Lincoln advocated laws to keep free slaves out of Illinois.

[laweeks]

I will take Romney and a conservative Congress any day. It is up to us to hold our elected officials feet to the fire

And which Congress are you talking about?

. . . The one where we beat the hell out of the libtards and RINOs last fall?
. . . the one where ABSOLUTELY NOTHING HAS HAPPENED TO STOP THIS CRAP
. . . the one headed by Boner?
. . . the one that was going to stop funding Planned Predators?
. . . the one that was going to DEFUND Obamacare?
. . . is it the one that was going to reign in spending?
. . . is it that one? . .

[CodeToad]

“As William Faulkner said, “The past isn’t dead; it isn’t even past.””

So very true. We in the ‘future’ must deal with the acts of the past.

[CodeToad]

“Every other civilized country got rid of slavery without such bloodshed.”

That assuming the Civil War was all about slavery, which it wasn’t. It was much more about the North and South beating up on each other in Congress and the South deciding it would be better off on its own.

[Nifster]

This is why in every race we need to focus on getting OCNSERVATIVES elected... WE need to keep their feet to the fire. Rolling over and saying oh well it is all the same means we are abdicating OUR responsibility

[central_va]

I've only visited eastern theatre battle fields. Having said that the best preserved battelfield is Antietam.

Some locals claim the place is haunted...

[Erasmus]

Nowadays, it’s “Government to the people, at the people, and on the people.”

[robowombat]

Ah, a LaRouchite leftover comments.

[Nifster]

the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.....

[robowombat]

Note the dismissive contemptuous comments from Marxist propagandist posing as an academician Eric Foner;

In any case, Columbia University historian Eric Foner questions the values of focusing on the death toll of such a horrific period in US history.

“A numbers game gets us only so far in understanding the war’s impact on American life,” he says.

“There is an ongoing debate about the number of slaves brought from Africa to the New World during the slave trade era - nine million, 12 million, 14 million. Does it really matter when we are assessing the morality of the slave trade?”

The function of this is to dismiss the numbers of mostly white men who died in this conflict compared to the ‘irredeemable original sin’ of slave holding. These termites are busy at work destroying as much of our collective memory as possible. Calling the casualty estimate ‘a numbers game’ means it is an unimportant detail whether 600,000 or 750,000 or a million white men died
compared to the ‘sin of slavery’. Now pay close attention. Here is the real message from Mr. Foner and the rest of the cultural marxists. The United States and the colonial society it preceded from is a basically evil and corrupt enterprise founded upon racism, classism, sexism, homophobia and genocidism. The deaths of white men or Americans in general in its wars are unimportant as these conflicts were either fought for or caused by the basic evil nature of our social order. History is merely a tool to unmask these sins and discredit the United States so that the process of destruction of our social and economic order can be advanced so that a new ‘socialist’ synthesis can replace and eliminate the inherently racist capitalist order. That is what this feculent little remark means. Foner and all his ilk are the enemies of all true Americans.

[robowombat]

Union General Schofield, who may have been the most intellectual of all the Federal high command, wrote after the war that the real toll was probably nearer to a million counting the thousands who both died after returning home of disease or wounds and those whose lives were dramatically shortened by effects of wounds or disease, as well as significant undercounting of casualties during the war. An example of the first sort would be Private B. W. Mitchell of the 27th Indiana, the man who found Lee's ‘Lost Order’ at Frederick on 13 Sep 1862. Private Mitchell was severely wounded at Antietam/Sharpsburg on 17 Sept and was discharged after spending eight months in hospital partially recovering from his wounds. Mitchell was never able to work in any real fashion again and died in 1866 at his home in Bartholomew, Indiana. Mitchell's family became charity cases (he had several young children) as a result. The details of this one case can be easily found in ‘Battles and Leaders’ Vol. II, pg. 603. Who can doubt that there were tens of thousands of cases such as Private Mitchell's on both sides.

I have noted gravestones of men described as CSA that show many dates of death in 1866 to 1869. Many of these men likely had their lives shortened directly due to wounds and disease incurred in service. Furthermore Confederate records, especially here in the west, are very spotty. Virtually all of the Alabama state service records are missing as they were burnt with much of the state archives by Auger's people in April 1865. Militia records are also very spotty and in states such as Mississippi the militia was regularly embodied to support combat operations such as dealing with the many federal raids launched from west Tennessee and Louisiana. In the Atlanta campaign the Georgia militia was fully mobilized and many were used in combat operations. All of this goes to say even a century and a half after the fact the the US has yet to come to terms with how really large and destructive the WBTS/CW was. This is especially true for the South where the impact was incalculable. I note this article appears in a British not American publication. Perhaps there is a reason for that. I leave that to your speculation. I do call your attention to the belittling remarks of Marxist PC propagandist disguised as an academician Eric Foner.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***The US Civil War was incontrovertibly the bloodiest, most devastating conflict in American history,***

Next time someone demands reparations for their ancestors being in slavery remind them that reparations were paid for in blood.

[Fiji Hill]

The war covered an area equivalent of the distance from Oslo, Norway to Athens, Greece. Greece being the same size as Arkansas or Alabama. On the same note, you can almost fit two and a half Europe’s in the US.

The easternmost land battle was probably Williamsburg, Va., and the westenmost was Picacho Peak, about 40 miles west of Tuscon, Ariz. The westernmost contact was apparently at Stanwix Station, on the Gila River near present-day Dateland, Ariz. These all took place in 1862. The distance between Williamsburg and Tucson is about 2300 miles.

[Fiji Hill]

We got 300,000
Before they conquered us.
They died of Southern fever
And Southern steel and shot.
And I wish it was three million
Instead of what we got.

—Maj. James I. Randolph, CSA, 1914

[kalee]

ping

[Verginius Rufus]

If the South had not seceded, slavery probably would have continued for at least several more decades...so the Southern soldiers also contributed to the end of slavery, even if unwittingly. If the North had conquered the South quickly, Lincoln would not have issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

“Truly it is written, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be requited by one drawn by the sword.” - A. Lincoln

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I cannot help but agree that the Civil War was most unnecessary. Hot heads on both sides fired the cannons before anyone thought through the consequences. Very few people, on either side, would have supported the War if they had foreseen the consequences. Slavery would have ended in the South within a generation, most likely. Was the cost in blood and treasure worth a generation of freedom? Would the status of the freedman have been ameliorated if the southern states had relinquished slavery of their own volition?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

THE CONQUERED BANNER
by Fr. Abram Joseph Ryan, Chaplain, CSA
(1838-1886)

Furl that Banner, for 'tis weary;
Round its staff 'tis drooping dreary;
Furl it, fold it, it is best;
For there's not a man to wave it,
And there's not a sword to save it,
And there's no one left to lave it
In the blood that heroes gave it;
And its foes now scorn and brave it;
Furl it, hide it--let it rest!

"The chasm is closed"
In memory of the restored Union this tablet is dedicated by
Union veterans of the Civil War and patriotic citizens of Martha's Vineyard
in honor of the Confederate soldiers