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Chapter 12: list of regiments and Batteries in the Union Armies with mortuary losses of each — the number killed and number of deaths from disease or other causes.
Another interesting chapter in this story of loyalty may be found in the statistics showing the total number of deaths in each organization from the
Northern States that served in the
War for the
Union.
The deaths incurred in battle are tabulated here separately from those induced by other causes, and the loss in officers is also given by itself.
These figures are based on the records of the muster-out rolls on file in the
Military Bureaus of the various States, and have been revised by a careful comparison with the records of the War Department at
Washington.
They have also been tested by the casualty lists of the various battles, as published in the
Official Records of the
Rebellion, or awaiting publication.
The figures are believed to be correct; and, beyond the possible change of an unit or so, will admit of no variation.
In footing up the regimental losses of any State, a seeming discrepancy may arise between the total result and the figures of the War Department which are given elsewhere in these pages.
This difference in the total losses of a State may be due to the following reasons: some soldiers who were borne on the muster-out rolls as “wounded and missing in action” are included in these regimental tables with the killed; while in the official statistics of the War Department none are counted as killed unless definite information through official sources has been received to that effect.
For this reason the total of killed in any State, as tabulated here by regiments, may exceed somewhat the figures of the War Department.
On the other hand, the footings of the regimental losses from disease and other causes may, in some States, fall somewhat below the figures of the
Adjutant General's office at
Washington.
This difference is due largely to deaths among the “unassigned recruits,” who are omitted in these regimental tables.
These unassigned recruits were seldom borne on the regimental rolls; they never reported to the regiments for duty; and most of the deaths among them occurred at the
North while in recruiting barracks or camps of instruction.
Hence, the deaths in this class are not considered in connection with the matter of regimental losses, although they enter properly into the
State totals.
Some minor organizations, in which deaths from disease occurred, are also omitted, companies or small battalions which never left their State, or were organized 1865, at the close of the war.
For these reasons the
State totals are not given, except in the official table issued by the
Adjutant-General of the War Department at
Washington, and which is reprinted elsewhere in these pages for that purpose.
With each regiment is given the division and corps in which it served.
In some cases a regiment served in different divisions, and, sometimes, in more than one corps; but the division and corps designated here are not intended to cover the history of a regiment, but rather to suggest something which will assist the reader in identifying the battalion and tihe
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campaigns in which it served.
Without this mention of some one division or corps, the figures would, too often, remain meaningless and useless.
In designating the division, the name of its general is used in preference to its numerical title.
The soldiers were wont to so designate their commands, while historians invariably allude to a division by its commander's name.
As many of the divisions served under different generals, and were known successively by these commanders' names, it becomes difficult at times to select the name which might most properly designate the command.
In some cases the doubt was decided by using the name of the general under whom the regiment served longest.
Still, to do all this accurately would necessitate a knowledge of the corps histories which few, if any, possess.
It is hoped, however, that the name of the division will in each case assist in some degree to identify the regiment, to recall its history, and to throw some light upon the nature of its losses,--even though the name selected may not be the one best adapted to the purpose.
In giving the date of organization, the day of the month has been omitted, as in many commands the companies were mustered in at various dates; and, in each case, a large part of the men had enlisted and were in barracks a considerable time before the regiment effected its complete organization and muster — in as a regiment.
In some regiments there were men who had enlisted several weeks, often months, before their regiment was organized.
On the other hand, some of the regiments raised under the second call (1862) organized and left for the front within thirty days after the first man signed the roll.
The total enrollments are omitted for lack of space; but the number enrolled in three hundred of these regiments, the leading ones in point of loss, will be found in the various pages of Chapter X. The other regiments numbered about one thousand men each when organized, and received, on an average, 300 recruits.
Some of them took the field with only 800 men or thereabouts, and received but few recruits, while some others carried 1,800 on their rolls.
Where the number enrolled is not otherwise stated, the average infantry regiment may be considered as numbering 1,300, original members and recruits.
The cavalry regiments carried 1,800 men on their rolls as an average, and the heavy artillery commands about 2,200.
In the light batteries (six-gun batteries), 250 was a common enrollment.
By noting these facts the regimental losses in killed will be better understood, and an approximate idea of the percentage of loss will be obtained.
These figures are far above the plane of ordinary statistics.
They represent the measure of blood which an unflinching patriotism gave in exchange for the perpetuity of the Nation and the ransom of the
Republic.
note.--Many of the regiments marked in the following tables as having “reenlisted and served through the war,” preserved their organization by reason of a large number of recruits (who had unexpired terms to serve), rather than by the number of veterans who reenlisted.
Some of the three-years' regiments whose term expired in 1864, and were discharged and discontinued, contained in their ranks more reenlisted veterans than some commands which served through the war.
