What was the general breakdown of casualties per their cause during American Civil War?
Upvote:0
According to John Keegan "The Civil War", there was multiple factors for wounds and deaths, and there was no clear account of which weapon was the cause of casualties. However, there are some elements to answer this question.
First, yes, disease were the first cause of death. But one can consider them to be out of the count of combat casualties.
Then:
- Infantry shooting is supposed to be the main cause of casualties, since the record of the battles show most of the time that only shooters could stop an attack.
- Artillery was very useful and dangerous at the time. But it was mostly a threat on a tactical level: thus, when artillery started to fire at a unit, the unit quickly fell back or tried to take cover: artillery hampered its move, disorganized but did not create numerous casualties. Even more, artillery often fired on units on a friendly zone, which means that wounded soldiers could be rescued by nurses. It did not mean however, considering medical capacities of the time, that all wounded soldiers were saved
- Bayonnet and edge weapon: There were not that much edge-weapon engagements, even for cavalry units which mostly fought dismounted. However, some close quarter fights occured sometimes, and they often led to numerous casualties*
Conclusion:
Infantry fire: Most of casualties, high proportion of dead
Artillery: Numerous casualties, not that much of them dead
Edge weapons: No numerous casualties overall, but an infantry unit in close quarter fight was promised to heavy losses
*However, such losses were caused by edge weapons in the close quarter fight as well as by other soldiers shooting in the mass
Upvote:1
Bruce Catton's history and Shelby Foote's history should have the details. I cannot check as my copies are at home. From what I remember, it was pre-battle medical care and unsanitary conditions that killed the most soldiers. The first use of modern rifles with Napoleon tactics contributed to the hight number of dead on the battle field.
Upvote:4
You can get a breakdown of the major causes of death here.
Prior to the 20th century (possibly late 19th), the dominant cause of death in war was disease: the troops were in close quarters with unsanitary conditions and inadequate means of handling these. This number was followed by complications related to injuries actually suffered in battle — frequently one would get a small injury and it would get infected and kill the individual even though it would be trivial to heal the wound in better conditions.
Unfortunately, I cannot give you a specific breakdown of blade vs. bullet (and I suspect that it would be impossible to do so), but I will say that, based on the artillery technology of the time, it is fairly safe to say that discerning the difference between bullet and canon shot would be quite impossible. Even if you assume that there was a substantial interest in maintaining those records, there would not have been effort made to determine which injuries are post-mortem.
More post
- 📝 When did the English and Americans realize that vegetables were healthy?
- 📝 Did the German authorities respell Polish personal names to be more German during the time of the German Empire?
- 📝 How didn't the North Koreans catch the pun "We paean the DPRK. We paean their great leader Kim Il Sung"?
- 📝 How were foreign names written in runes?
- 📝 How was it possible for the Ukrainian SSR to be one of the founding members of the UN if it was basically a Province of the USSR?
- 📝 Please identify this WW1 Italian Uniform
- 📝 How do they prove adultery before video/digital evidence was available?
- 📝 Did the pope try to suppress the number zero?
- 📝 Was there Church opposition to heliocentrism in 1600?
- 📝 Why Europe became more developed although metal was first discovered and used in Asia/Africa?
- 📝 Did any African-American slaves with Jewish owners ever adopt Judaism?
- 📝 What was unreasonable about Austria's ultimatum to Serbia?
- 📝 What happened to all the notable Roman families?
- 📝 Did the Bar Kokhba revolt happen before or after Jerusalem's name was changed to Aelia?
- 📝 How did the education system in Colonial North America work?
- 📝 Why is it called the "Ottoman" Empire in English language?
- 📝 What happened to prisoners in IS occupied territory?
- 📝 Where can I find this paper by Jean Buridan?
- 📝 Were there international Islamist movements before the US started supporting islamists in Afghanistan?
- 📝 Which were the continent-wide common languages in human history?
- 📝 How many Britons lived in India during the British Raj (1858 - 1947)?
- 📝 Machine gun specs in WW1
- 📝 Was there any new military innovation during the Siege of Malta?
- 📝 Ancient statue I found near my place
- 📝 Did Hitler ever tell a joke?
- 📝 Why didn't Aboriginal Australians invent agriculture?
- 📝 Why was the spread of Christianity scattered compared to other major religions?
- 📝 Why did stock brokers go bankrupt after the crash of 1929?
- 📝 What were Hiroshima and Nagasaki known for prior to World War II?
- 📝 In what sense was marriage in 19th century Europe "expensive"?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What was the general breakdown of casualties per their cause during American Civil War?
- 📝 What was the size of surface of a cereal crop needed per man per year during the Dark Ages in Western Europe?
- 📝 What was the nominal strength of a company in a British Regiment during the American war of Independence?
- 📝 What was the extent of France's material support during the American Revolution?
- 📝 What was the experience level of officers during the American Civil war?
- 📝 What was the fate of the planters and their plantations following the American Civil War?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 What was the typical peasant's diet like in Europe during the High Middle Ages?
- 📝 What was the status of Arab Christians during the crusades?
- 📝 What was the role of the Soviet Navy during WWII?
- 📝 What was the ratio of German to Soviet losses on Eastern front during different stages of the war?
- 📝 What was the strategy to protect the British Museum during the World Wars?
- 📝 To what extent was prohibition supported by the American public?
- 📝 What was the value of the spice trade during the age of exploration?
- 📝 What was the liquor that was based on petrol which was produced in the USSR during the Second World War?
- 📝 What was the Victorian opinion of the American Revolution?
- 📝 What was the actual value of tea destroyed during the Boston Tea Party?
- 📝 Was the act of servicemen exchanging their weapons for enemy weapons common during WWII?
- 📝 What was the device that general Birdwood was using in the "Gallipoli" TV series?
- 📝 What factors discouraged the Nazis from focusing all their forces on the Caucasus region during Operation Barbarossa?
- 📝 Was the Somerset Decision in 1772 in England the real underlying cause of the American Revolutionary war?
- 📝 What was the attitude of English knights towards their longbowmen counterparts?
- 📝 What did European people of the 5th century AD eat during spring and what was the availability?
- 📝 What was the Soviet role in Syria during the Cold-War?
- 📝 What was the original cause of the Camel War in Islamic history?
- 📝 Communication lag during the Age of Sail: what if enemy claimed that peace agreement was signed?
- 📝 What was Poland's posture during the Seven Years' War?
- 📝 What was the program of the Mensheviks in their later years? How did they hope to achieve it?
- 📝 In the British empire, what was the difference between a Governor General and a Viceroy?
- 📝 What is the historical evidence behind the claim that the Soviet armies perpetrated mass rapes during their stay in Germany?