William F. Fox, Lt. Col. U. S. V., Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865: A Treatise on the extent and nature of the mortuary losses in the Union regiments, with full and exhaustive statistics compiled from the official records on file in the state military bureaus and at Washington

Chapter 3: percentage of killed in regiments in particular battles — comparison of such losses with those of European regiments.

In proportion to the number engaged, the greatest loss sustained by any regiment, during the war, was that of the First Minnesota at Gettysburg. This regiment was then in Harrow's Brigade, Gibbon's Division, Second Corps. On the afternoon of the second day at Gettysburg, the Union line was driven back in confusion from its position along the Emmettsburg road. While Hancock was “patching” up a second line, he perceived a column of the enemy (Willcox's Brigade) emerging suddenly from a clump of trees near an unprotected portion of his line. The First Minnesota, alone and unsupported, was in position near by, and Hancock, desirous of gaining time until reenforcements could be brought forward, rode up to Colonel Colville and ordered him to take the enemy's colors.¹ A desperate fight ensued, in which the enemy was forced back, leaving their colors in the hands of the First Minnesota. Speaking of this affair afterwards, General Hancock is reported to have said:

There is no more gallant deed recorded in history. I ordered those men in there because I saw that I must gain five minutes time. Reenforcements were coming on the run, but I knew that before they could reach the threatened point the Confederates, unless checked, would seize the position. I would have ordered that regiment in if I had known every man would be killed. It had to be done, and I was glad to find such a gallant body of men at hand, willing to make the terrible sacrifice that the occasion demanded.

The regiment took 262 officers and men into this affair.² It lost 50 killed and 174 wounded, total, 224 casualties, nearly all of which occurred in this fight. A remarkable feature of this loss is that none were missing. Seventeen officers were killed or wounded, [27] the latter including the Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel, Major, and Adjutant. The killed, with those who died of their wounds, numbered 75, or over 28 per cent. of those engaged — a percentage of killed unequalled in military statistics.³

The next largest percentage of killed occurred at Spotsylvania, in the Fifteenth New Jersey. This regiment belonged to the First Jersey Brigade, Wright's Division, Sixth Corps, and lost 116 killed or mortally wounded at Spotsylvania. Unlike the sudden loss of the First Minnesota at Gettysburg, its casualties occurred in three different actions: 31 were lost on May 8th, 5 on May 10th, and 80 on May 12th, at the Bloody Angle. It may be urged that, these being three different affairs, the losses should not be consolidated. If they had occurred at different places, as, for instance, South Mountain and Antietam, the criticism would hold good; but this fighting was done at one place, and the continuous nervous strain made it as heroic as if the lose had occurred in one brief charge. This regiment crossed the Rapidan May 5th, with 444 effective men.⁴ It sustained but a slight loss at the Wilderness, and took 432 officers and men into action at Spotsylvania, of whom 116 were killed or died of wounds — a loss of 26 per cent. Within nine days after breaking camp, it was reduced to 5 officers and 136 men available for action.

Next, in percentage of killed in particular engagements, is the Twenty-fifth Massachusetts at Cold Harbor, then in Stannard's Brigade, Martindale's Division, Eighteenth Corps. This loss occurred in the assault on the earthworks at Cold Harbor, where it was subjected to a terrible fire. A Confederate officer, describing the advance of the Twenty-fifth against his works, writes that the heroic regiment struggled forward under a fire which seemed to literally annihilate them; that the whole line seemed to disappear; and he expresses wonder that any could have survived. The loss was 53 killed, 139 wounded, and 28 missing, “out of 310 reported for duty that morning.” ⁵ On the following day there were only 4 officers and 62 men left on duty. Many of the missing were killed. The muster-out rolls of the Twenty-fifth bear the names of 74 officers and men who were killed or mortally wounded during the quarter of an hour which covered that assault; a loss of 24 per cent. in killed, and over two-thirds in killed and wounded. The small number taken into this action was owing to the heavy losses which the regiment had just sustained, a few days previous, in the Drewry's Bluff campaign. The Confederate officer just referred to, states further that his men were massed five ranks deep behind their breastworks; that the front rank alone fired, while the others passed up loaded rifles, which were discharged as rapidly as they could be fired; that, in addition to this, the artillery posted in the salients, poured a flanking fire of canister into the ranks of the doomed regiment.

A smaller loss as to the number killed, but equally remarkable as to percentage, is found in the record of the One Hundred and Forth-first Pennsylvania at Gettysburg. This regiment was, at that time, in Graham's Brigade, Birney's Division, Third Corps. It had already lost at Chancellorsville 235 (killed, wounded, and missing) out of 417 engaged there. At Gettysburg, only 198 answered to the morning roll call,⁶ of whom 25 were killed, 103 wounded, and 21 missing; total, 149. The killed, with those who died of wounds, numbered 49, or 24 per cent. of those engaged. The one Hundred and Forty-first fought at Gettysburg in the famous Peach Orchard.

One of the most remarkable losses in the war, both in numbers and percentage, occurred at Manassas, in Gen. Fitz John Porter's Corps, in the celebrated Duryee Zouaves (Fifth New York), of Warren's Brigade, Sykes' Division. General Sykes, in his official report, states [28] that the regiment took 490 into action. It lost 79 killed, 170 wounded, and 48 missing; total, 297. Many of the missing were killed. The deaths from wounds increased the number killed to 117,⁷ or 23 per cent. of those engaged, the greatest loss of life in any infantry regiment during the war, in any one battle. The regiment held an exposed position, and Gen. Warren states that when he endeavored to extricate them, “they were unwilling to make backward movement.” This is the regiment which, at Gaines' Mill, having been badly thinned, closed up its ranks and counted off anew “with great coolness while exposed to a most terrific fire!” --(Official Report.)

The following list of percentages will indicate fairly the extent of loss in killed, to which a regiment is liable in battle. The number engaged is, in most cases, taken from the official reports. In some instances, however, the number given was ascertained firom statements in regimental histories.

Percentages of killed in regiments, in particular engagements.

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Unlike other tabulations in these pages, the above list is not an exhaustive one. Although showing losses of over ten per cent., it does not include every loss which exceeded that ratio. It is impossible, in many cases, to ascertain the number of muskets taken into action; regimental commandants seldom stated it, although it always would have formed an important item in their official report.

Morning reports are of little assistance in this matter, for there was always a wide difference between the number of men reported as “present for duty” and the number taken into action. Although the morning reports stated the “present for duty” separately from the “aggregate present,” there were still a large number of non-combatants included in the “present for duty,” a large number of men detailed on special duties — too often, contrary to orders; and in case of a hard march, immediately preceding a battle, many fell out from inability to keep up, to say nothing of disinclination. General McClellan, in his official report of the battle of Antietam, carelessly states the strength of his army at 87,164, when it is doubtful if he had 60,000 muskets on the field.¹² Yet the morning reports would justify his statement.

Let it be hoped that, in the future wars of the Republic, the army may have its corps of intendants, as in the German Army that every wearer of the national uniform shall be a man-at-arms, serving as such only; and that the men attached to the trains and all other subsidiary departments shall be enlisted for such service and wear a different uniform. Then a morning report will be some indication of the strength of a regiment or of an army.

The Confederates managed these things better. They counted their men as they went into action, and were careful to report no larger number. They were quick to see the important point involved. In General Cheatham's official report for Stone's River, he not only tabulates the number of killed and wounded in his division, but adds other columns in which he states the number of men taken into action by each regiment and the consequent percentage of loss.

This mention of the actual force engaged is a frequent item in the reports of the Confederate erate colonels, while in the Union Army it is correspondingly rare. In the latter there were so many men detailed contrary to order — officers' servants, for instance — that, too often, a colonel did not care to call attention to the discrepancy between his morning report and his [35] effective strength. The Union Armies generally outnumbered the Confederates, but the disparity was not so great as the official figures always implied.

Although the reports of the Union commanders seldom mentioned the number taken into action by each regiment, General Hancock was thoughtful enough in his report for Fredericksburg to specify the number present on the field in each regiment of his division. As the loss in Hancock's Division, in its memorable assault on Marye's Heights, was one of the severest of the war, it is given here in full. In addition to the official figures, the number of killed, as increased by those who died of their wounds, is also given — the number having been ascertained by examining the muster-out rolls of each regiment.

Having the exact number engaged, these casualties are of interest as showing the outside limit of loss to which troops are subjected in action. There are on record some higher percentages in cases of individual regiments in certain engagements, but no greater percentage in any division.

Hancock's Division. Fredericksburg, Dec. 13, 1862.

Nearly all the missing ones were killed or wounded men, who fell in front of the stone wall at Marye's Heights. Most of them belong with the killed, and were buried by the enemy. The number engaged may appear small; but it should be remembered that this division had already lost 3,290 men on the Peninsula and at Antietam. [36]

It may be of interest to know the maximum of percentage, as based on the total of killed, wounded and missing, instead of on the killed and mortally wounded alone. Such percentages, however, are apt to be unsatisfactory, as the missing includes the captured men. In the following table the missing are mostly, if not all, killed or wounded men.

maximum percentage of casualties.

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There are other instances which deserve a place in the preceding list, but are omitted as it is impossible to ascertain definitely the number of men engaged.

It is well to pause here, and consider what these figures mean; to think of what such extraordinary percentages imply. Perhaps their significance will be better understood when compared with some extraordinary loss in foreign wars; some well known instance which may serve as a standard of measurement. Take the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaklava. Its extraordinary loss has been made a familiar feature of heroic verse and story in every land, until the whole world has heard of the gallant Six Hundred and their ride into the Valley of Death. Now, as the Light Brigade accomplished nothing in this action,--merely executed an order which was a blunder,--it must be that it was the danger and its attendant loss which inspired the interest in that historic ride. What was the loss? The Light Brigade took 673 officers and men into that charge; they lost 113 killed and 134 wounded¹⁹; total, 247, or 36.7 per cent.

The heaviest loss in the German Army during the Franco-Prussian war occurred in the Sixteenth Infantry (Third Westphalian), at Mars La Tour. Like all German regiments of the line it numbered 3,006 men. As this battle was the first in which it was engaged,--occurring within a few days of the opening of the campaign,--it carried 3,000 men into action. It lost 509 killed and mortally wounded, 619 wounded, and 365 missing²⁰; total, 1484, or 49.4 per cent. The Garde-Schutzen Battalion, 1,000 strong, lost at Metz, August 18th, 162 killed and mortally wounded, 294 wounded, and 5 missing; total, 461, or 46.1 per cent.

A comparison of these percentages with those of the Union regiments in certain battles just cited will give some idea of the desperate character of the fighting during the American Civil War.