Next Prev Next Enter Your Search Terms Below Putting your search in quotes will search on the entire phrase - like "15th New Jersey". Limit to the first 10 20 50All results. Fox's Regimental Losses DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES. 40 DIED OF DISEASE. (Nor INCLUDING DEATHS IN PRISONS.) Class - Enrolled. Die,/. Percent Volunteers. 2,080,193 1<;7,510 8.0 Regulars. G7,00o 2,552 3.H Colored Troops 178,1)75 29,658 16.:, Total. 2,326,1(58 11)9,720 8.5 DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES. f last ' Enrolled. Dud. Percent. Volunteers. 2,080,103 316,883 15.2 Regulars. 67,000 5,798 8.6 Colored Troops 178,975 36,S47 20.5 Total. 2,826,16$ 359,528 15.4 Tin* number of deaths from disease was remarkable, being more than double the mnnW from hattle. Without including the deaths in Confederate prisons, or those caused by acci dents, drowning, sunstrokes, suicides, executions, murders, or other causes, there were 199.-720 of the Union Army who died of disease — in camp, in hospitals, or at home- l»efore their term of enlistment had expired. Part of this extraordinary loss was due to the severity of the campaigns. The extent of territory marched over was immense ; some of the campaigns were made under a tropical sun, and some of the battles were fought amid the snows of winter. The Ninth Corps fought on the Carolina Coast, and then moved a thousand miles westward to the fever-smitten camps at Vicksburg. The Twelfth Corps, after lighting for two years in Virginia, moved to Tennessee, from whence it fought its way through Georgia to Atlanta ; marched from Atlanta to the Sea, and thence northward to its old battle grounds, having encircled half a continent. Men from the woods of Maine encamped two thousand miles distant along the bayous of Louisiana. Men from the prairies of the Northwest toiled and battled among the everglades of Florida, and along the (Julf. Human endurance was often tested to its utmost, and the restless, moving armies left in their wake a line of count less graves. And, yet, some of the greatest losses by disease occurred in regiments that were not sub jected to the exposure of active service ; regiments, which |H?rformed garrison duty only, and were provided with comfortable quarters and good food. The greatest loss by disease occurred in some black regiments which were doing garrison duty, and were stationed in the? same district from which they had been recruited and where they had lived all their lives. Then, again, certain regiments among the white troops suffered from disease, unaccountably, more than others. The Vermont Brigade, while encani|>ed in Virginia, in lsr.1, lost scores of men by disease, while the regiments in adjoining camps were entirely exempt ; and, yet, these Vermonters excelled in physique, cleanliness and intelligence. The most striking feature of the mortuary statistics is that the regiments which incurred the greatest loss in battle are the ones which suffered least from disease. While, throughout the whole army, the deaths from disease were double those from bullets, the hard fighting regiments seldom lost even a like number. One fifth of the deaths from disease occurred in regiments that never were in battle. In connection with this matter one must bear in mind, also, the ratio of mortality in civil life. Assuming the average age of the soldiers to be 23 years, the tables of the Life Insurance Actuaries indicate that three-fourths of the deaths from disease were due to the ex|M>sure of a 4 _02648
