The Era of Civil War: Confederate and Chickamauga

The losses of the army have never been accurately determined. There were many persons who deserted and have never been accounted for; many who were killed or died in prison, of whom no record was kept; but three different estimates by various bureaus do not greatly differ. Phisterer's estimate, though now believed to be somewhat too low, is as follows: Killed in battle, 44,238; died of wounds, 49,205; died of disease, 186,216; unknown, suicides, etc., 24,710; total, 304,369.

The latest estimates give the loss as high as 360,000.

There were 2,261 engagements of all kinds, and in 148 of these the Federal loss was 500 or more.

The following table gives the losses in the principal battles of the Civil War. The figures are the total for killed, wounded, and missing, as given in Phisterer's Official Record:

Battle. Union. Confederate.

Bull Run 2,952 1,752

Shiloh 13,573 10,699

Seven Pines and Fair Oaks 5,739 7,997

Seven Days Battles 15,249 17,583

Second Bull Run 7,800 3,700

Antietam 12,469 25,899

Perryville 4,348 7,000

Fredericksburg 12,353 4,576

Murfreesboro 11,578 25,560

Chancellorsville 16,030 12,281

Gettysburg Campaign 23,186 31,621

Chickamauga 15,851 17,804

Chattanooga 5,616 8,684

Wilderness 37,737 11,400

Spottsylvania, etc. 26,461 9,000

Atlanta 3,641 8,499

Franklin 2,326 6,252

Nashville 2,140 15,000

Surrendered at the close, about 100,000

The statistics for the Confederate army are not so easy to give, because many of the records have been destroyed, and because many of the records have been destroyed, and because not all of the calls for troops were met. At first States' rights were recognized by calling for State troops, but this soon became unsatisfactory, and the Confederate army was organized. Under the various calls for troops and the many acts of legislation by the Confederate Congress every able-bodied man in the Confederacy was, sooner or later, called into the service, and finally boys and old men were pressed into service for garrison duty. It is believed that 750,000 men, in all, were regularly enlisted, armed, and equipped; but probably not 500,000 were ever in the service at one time, while the real number of effectives must have been considerably less. Yet the disparity in effectiveness between these two armies was not so great as the figures suggest. The Confederates were always, with a few exceptions, in their own territory and generally behind works. The Confederates never won a victory outside their own borders, not even in the border States of Kentucky or Maryland, nor did they have any important successes in Tennessee. The Federal army was obliged to keep up a long line of communication from its base of supplies, and this constantly depleted the firing line. The great Confederate victory in the West was at Chickamauga. In the East the victories were in defending their capital. Both sides fought with great valor, and the end did not come until the fighting power of the South had gone. It is believed that the Confederate army lost over 200,000 men killed, died of wounds or disease. There is one excellent authority who claims, on the basis of the few returns available, that the loss was at least 300,000, and perhaps more, making a total sacrifice of nearly 700,000 men.

Financially, both sections were in great trouble much of the time. War is terribly expensive. The North had more resources than the South, but at first it had little credit and no cash. The Morrill tariff bill, passed in 1861, provided for a war revenue, but it was only a drop in the bucket. The Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to borrow, but lenders were few. The whole nation was for a time in a dazed condition. Secession, so long threatened, had come, and many loyal persons believed that it was not possible to maintain the Union by war and preferred a peaceable separation. Others feared that a war would be useless, as Europe would interfere on behalf of the South, because almost all the cotton in the world came from within her borders, and to shut off this commodity would cause so much distress that international law would be strained to force an outlet for this great staple. Could the Confederacy have had a steady outlet for cotton it could have kept up the struggle much longer.