action, probably killed.
No attempt has been made to give statistics as to the number of wounded in action, because the method of recording these differed so greatly in different regiments—some officers recording very slight wounds and others ignoring all but serious ones—that there exists no solid basis of comparison.
The prison list, which follows later, is mainly prepared from several unofficial manuscript books on file at the Adjutant-General's Office, purporting to give lists of Massachusetts officers and soldiers who died either in Confederate prisons or in the camps of paroled prisoners.
These books give also the dates of their supposed deaths, the whole being made up largely from the affidavits of returning comrades.
The precise authorship of these books is now unknown, but they were probably compiled under the general direction of Col. Gardner Tufts, State Relief Agent at Washington, who was in the habit of sending out men to meet returned prisoners and to obtain infor
