Dear H-CivWarriors,



Thanks to those who have patiently responded off-list to my very basic
question about what constituted casualties.  They have illuminated the
shortcomings of my answer in class, teaching me that the missing counted
as casualties as well as the dead and wounded.  That makes perfect sense
and probably should have just occurred to me without having to ask.



But one follow-up question for you all, based on another question in
this classroom discussion that I couldn't answer:  at what point did the
counters decide a particular soldier was among the dead from a
particular battle?  In other words, we give figures like over 6,000 dead
at Antietam - is that directly killed on that battlefield, or does it
also include those who died from their wounds or from disease in some
hospital thereafter?  And if the latter, how long thereafter?



Part of what is emerging as I think about this is how far these casualty
figures are from an exact science, which is perfectly natural given the
chaos of war.  But a clearer sense of exactly how we / they arrive at
these figures would help me and my students.



Thanks again in advance,



Matthew Mason

Brigham Young University

Humanities & Social
Sciences Online

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