A casualty is someone injured, killed, captured, or missing in a military engagement. The Civil War had plenty of all these. The casualty totals in the Civil War can only be treated as estimates. The exact numbers cannot be exactly known.

Dead at Spotsylvania, 1864.

Due to exhaustive research by many credible and earnest Civil War scholars, the casualty numbers presented here can be considered to be as accurate as possible. I have relied on trustworthy sources for the numbers and statistics I share in this post. The exact number of Civil War casualties will forever be a topic for debate.

One fact we can be certain of regarding Civil War casualty counts, the carnage of the Civil War was immense. War and disease provided the Grim Reaper with all he desired.

Let us not neglect to know that the cold numbers and statistics shown in this post are facts that represent real people. People who fought in a vicious war, who bled red blood whether they were clothed in blue or gray. People who lost limbs or were severely disfigured, people who died miserable, slow deaths of disease or injury, people who perished instantaneously in groups during battle, or slowly had life ebb away as they sprawled alone and incapacitated in the aftermath of a major battle or minor skirmish. Many died agonizing and feverish deaths of disease. These numbers are human beings.

Dead Yankee at Petersburg, 1864.

How Many Died in the Civil War? The quick and simple answer is that no one knows for sure exactly how many died in the Civil War, neither for the North or the South. An estimate of the deaths in the Civil War is 623,026. This means that of men of service age, one out of eleven men died during the Civil War years between 1861 and 1865.

Below is a chart showing how the Civil War compares in total deaths to other wars:

A severe facial wound suffered in the Civil War.

How Many Casualties in the Civil War? For both sides in the Civil War, 471,427 can be considered as a minimum number of those wounded. When added to the estimate of 623,026 deaths, the total estimate of Civil War casualties is 1,094,453.

Greatest Union Battle Losses

+ Not including South Mountain and Crampton’s Gap.
++ Includes Chantilly, Rappahannock, Bristoe Station, and Bull Run Bridge.
Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

The Union Armies lost 110,070 killed or mortally wounded, and 275,175 wounded; for a total of 385,245. This does not include the missing in action. Of the 110,070 deaths from battle, 67,058 were killed on the field and the remaining 43,012 died of wounds.
This table shows how this loss was divided among the different arms of the service:

Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

The losses in the three main categories of Union troops were:

Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

DIED BY DISEASE. NOT INCLUDING DEATHS IN PRISONS.

Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

Deaths in the Union Army, from all causes, as officially classified.
DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES:

NOTE: The deaths from accidents were caused, principally, by the careless use of fire-arms, explosions of ammunition, and railway accidents; in the cavalry service, a large number of accidental deaths resulted from poor horsemanship.

Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

DEATHS IN CONFEDERATE ARMIES
James B. Fry, United States Provost Marshal-General, provides a report in 1865-1866 that includes a tabulation of Confederate losses. Fry’s report is compiled from the muster-rolls which are on file in the Bureau of Confederate Archives. This report is incomplete, as Confederate records can be, and often are, spotty. For example, in these records the Alabama rolls are mostly missing. Nonetheless, the numbers are worth noting. From General Fry’s report, the following table was created by William E. Fox in his Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865:

Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

Confederate Deaths of Disease:

Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

Secession fever hit the South after Abraham Lincoln was elected president. The South considered Lincoln’s Republican party victory in the 1860 presidential election as a sign that the North was now going to end the “peculiar institution” of slavery. For the South, the time of talk and compromise had ended. In December, 1860 South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union. Secession of the rest of the states that would make up the Confederate States of America occurred in two waves.

By the first week in February, 1861 six more states joined South Carolina in secession. The first wave of states to secede from the Union were all states of the Lower South. These states included: Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina.

The second wave of states to secede from the Union consisted of states from the Upper South. These states were: Arkansas, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia.

The states of the Confederacy in order of their dates of secession from the Union:

The Confederate States of America was made up of eleven states.

Confederate States of America – 1864

Virginia was a very important state of the Confederacy. The capital of the Confederacy was first in Montgomery, Alabama, but Richmond, Virginia soon became the Confederate capital. Virginia had 40 percent of the Rebel manufacturing capacity and the Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond would produce most of the Confederate artillery during the Civil War. As part of the Upper South, Virginia was a resource of vital agricultural and industrial assets needed to supply the Confederate war effort.

Many of the South’s military leaders were of Virginia, such as: Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart, Joseph E. Johnston, A. P. Hill, Richard S. Ewell, and others. The Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington provided many Rebel leaders of the Civil War. Along with North Carolina, and Tennessee, Virginia supplied most of the Confederacy’s soldiers. Richmond, Virginia is only 96 miles away from Washington D.C., and it was very important for the Confederacy to defend, and keep Richmond safe. Virginia was a hotspot of action during the Civil War. The First Battle of Manassas (First Battle of Bull Run was the name used for this same battle by the North) was the first major land battle of the Civil War, it was fought July 21, 1861, near Manassas, Virginia. General Robert E. Lee would surrender the Army of Northern Virginia to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 9, 1865.

The Winchester, Virginia area is rich in both Civil War and colonial history. Winchester is located in the north-western part of Virginia in Frederick County. This area is part of the Shenandoah Valley, and Winchester was an important transportation and commercial center. During the Civil War, from early 1862 to late 1864, Winchester changed hands between North and South no less than 70 times. Six major Civil War battles were fought in the Frederick County, Virginia area. These six major battles include the First, Second, and Third Battles of Winchester, the First and Second Battles of Kernstown, and Cedar Creek.

The Shenandoah Valley of Virginia was a place of much action during the Civil War. A curiosity of the geography of the Shenandoah Valley is that as you go down the valley from north to south, you actually go up in elevation. So, as you go “down” the valley, you actually go “up.” The Shenandoah Valley was an important route of invasion into the North for the Confederates, and was a source of much needed provisions. It was important for the North to prevent the South from using the Shenandoah Valley.

When Virginia seceded, it took over the United States armory located at Harpers Ferry, Virginia and the Gosport Naval Yard in Norfolk. The Gosport Naval Yard was the largest facility of shipbuilding and repair in the Confederate States of America.

The Virginia Ordinance of Secession

Virginia Ordinance of Secession
Virginia Secession Convention

AN ORDINANCE to repeal the ratification of the Constitution of the United State of America by the State of Virginia, and to resume all the rights and powers granted under said Constitution.

The people of Virginia in their ratification of the Constitution of the United States of America, adopted by them in convention on the twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, having declared that the powers granted under said Constitution were derived from the people of the United States and might be resumed whensoever the same should be perverted to their injury and oppression, and the Federal Government having perverted said powers not only to the injury of the people of Virginia, but to the oppression of the Southern slave-holding States:

This ordinance shall take effect and be an act of this day, when ratified by a majority of the voter of the people of this State cast at a poll to be taken thereon on the fourth Thursday in May next, in pursuance of a schedule hereafter to be enacted.

[Adopted by the convention of Virginia April 17,1861.]

[Ratified by a vote of 132,201 to 37,451 on May 23, 1861.]

Up, men, and to your posts! Don’t forget today that you are from Old Virginia!

— General George E. Pickett, to his men just before Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. Many of these men never returned to “Old Virginia.”

Just about everyone thinks he or she knows what the Rebel Yell sounded like. Movies and television have provided us their versions, but no one knows for sure what this battle cry sounded like. Or … do we know today exactly how the actual Rebel Yell sounded?

The Rebel Yell was first heard at The Battle of First Bull Run (First Manassas) on July 21, 1861. At an important part of the fight, as Confederate forces were failing, Rebel reinforcements arrived on the battlefield. The Confederates were able to rally and Thomas Jonathan Jackson gave the order; “Charge, men and yell like furies!”

The Rebel Yell thus was born. Savvy readers will know that not long before this, Jackson had gained his nickname of “Stonewall” from General Barnard Bee. As Jackson gave the above order that resulted in the Rebel Yell, he was not yet called Stonewall Jackson. After all, the battle was still being fought!

Confederate Lieutenant Richard Lewis, Fourth South Carolina Volunteers, wrote the following words describing the action at First Bull Run in a letter dated July 24, 1861 (bold added by your BlogMaster):

“The Yankees in such superiority of numbers … poured forth such a destructive fire into our ranks that our men were becoming confused and began to fall back. The gallant and noble General Barnard Bee dismounted his horse to rally the men, telling them as Carolinians they should never disgrace or dishonor their banner but should die under its folds, and all rallied again, and, with a shout and a yell that might have been heard for miles, they charged and repulsed the enemy, and drove them back from their position. It was not long before our brave General Bee fell mortally wounded.”

The Rebel Yell has been described as a high-pitched shout, and is possibly an adaptation of a Southern fox hunter cry. For the enemy Yankees, hearing the Rebel Yell most likely sent a chill of fear up their spines. Indeed, after the war, a veteran Yankee described the Rebel Yell:

“There is nothing like it on this side of the infernal region. The peculiar corkscrew sensation that it sends down your backbone under these circumstances can never be told. You have to feel it.”

There is no record that any Yankees actually ran after hearing the Rebel Yell.

Has the Rebel Yell been lost to history? Those who fought in the Civil War have long ago left us, they can no longer give the Rebel Yell, or tell us what it sounded like. But, maybe not!

Here are some videos that possibly bring the Rebel Yell to our ears today:

During the Civil War, the young Yankee and Rebel soldiers most likely were far away from home for the first time in their lives. It was common before the war, for these young soldiers never to have traveled more than 25 miles away from their homes. Now, they could find themselves hundreds of miles away from their loved ones and homes. Understandingly, these young men often suffered from homesickness.

To keep in touch with their loved ones, the soldiers, and their families wrote letters back and forth. Pen and ink were often not available, so most of the handwritten letters were in pencil. Rough handwriting and phonetic spelling are common in these letters. For the Union, 90,000 letters went through Washington, D.C. daily. In Louisville, Kentucky 180,000 Union letters passed through daily.

Major Sullivan Ballou of the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteers was 32-years-old at the beginning of the Civil War. He was born in Smithfield, Rhode Island and after attending the National Law School in Ballston, New York he was admitted to the Rhode Island Bar. Ballou married Sarah on October 15, 1855 and they had two sons, Edgar and William. Ballou was a Republican and a strong supporter of President Abraham Lincoln. He volunteered the spring of 1861. He and his men left Providence, Rhode Island for Washington, D.C. on June 19.

Major Sullivan Ballou

As what would become known as the First Battle of Bull Run (the Confederates called the same battle the First Battle of Manassas) approached, Sullivan Ballou wrote a letter to his wife back home in Smithfield. On July 14, 1861 Ballou wrote to Sarah as he sat alone in a tent at Camp Clarke in Washington, D.C., Ballou knew that the army would soon be moving southward against the Confederates, and that he would soon see battle. We’ll never know for sure, but perhaps he had a premonition of death, because he now took the opportunity to write a touching letter to his wife. In the letter, Ballou writes of his love for Sarah, and of his duty to his country.

Many are familiar with the Sullivan Ballou letter from hearing it during Ken Burns’s documentary The Civil War which aired in 1990. The letter was introduced by narrator David McCullough, and read by Paul Roebling with Jay Ungar’s Ashokan Farewell playing in the background. It only caught the hearts of everyone who heard it. The Sullivan Ballou letter is perhaps the most emotional and memorable letter written by a soldier in the Civil War.

The version of the Sullivan Ballou letter heard in The Civil War documentary was a shortened one. Some of Ballou’s words about his family and childhood are missing from the television presentation of the letter. In fact, the original Sullivan Ballou letter apparently did not survive, and has been lost to history. There are versions of the letter available today, but it is unknown which is most similar to the original written by Ballou.

Here is the Sullivan Ballou letter as it was heard in The Civil War by Ken Burns:

Sullivan Ballou Letter

July 14,1861 Washington, DC Dear Sarah: The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days – perhaps tomorrow. And lest I should not be able to write you again I feel impelled to write a few lines that may fall under your eye when I am no more.

I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the government and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing – perfectly willing – to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt.

Here is a longer version of the Sullivan Ballou letter:

July the 14th, 1861

Major Sullivan Ballou suffered a mortal injury on July 21, 1861 at the First Battle of Bull Run. Ballou lost his right leg when a Confederate six-pounder artillery shell slammed into him and his horse as he was riding at the front of his regiment. The horse was killed instantly, and the very severely injured Major Ballou was taken off the battlefield. What was left of his leg, had to be amputated. Major Sullivan Ballou died of his battle injury on July 28, and was buried in a yard very close to Sudley Church.

After the First Battle of Bull Run, the Confederates held the ground where Ballou was buried. According to witnesses, gruesome treatment of Ballou’s body followed. Confederate soldiers (supposedly, members of the 21st Georgia Infantry, but there is some uncertainty regarding this) dug up Ballou’s body, chopped off his head, and performed further insults and profanations to his remains. With these events, Sullivan Ballou’s body was never recovered. What was thought to be the charred ash and bone of Sullivan Ballou was later put to rest at Swan Point Cemetery, Providence, Rhode Island.

Barnes&Noble: For Love and Liberty: The Untold Civil War Story of Major Sullivan Ballou and His Famous Love Letter

The now famous Sullivan Ballou letter may never have been mailed to Sarah. Rhode Island Governor William Sprague went to Virginia to gather the effects of soldiers from Rhode Island who had fallen at Bull Run. Sullivan’s letter to Sarah was among his personal effects, and Governor Sprague delivered the letter to Sarah Ballou.

Sarah was only 24-years-old when her husband Sullivan Ballou died. Eventually, she lived out her life with her son William in New Jersey. She died in 1917 at the age of 80 and was buried next to her husband’s remains at Swan Point Cemetery.

Sarah never re-married.