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<<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?>> In my work at Gettysburg I have not been able to come up with a satisfactory answer to distinguish calculations for killed from those mortally wounded. Busey and Martin in their statistics for the battle indicate that those who "died of their wounds days or weeks after the battle" were counted as "wounded" on Federal returns, but "killed" in Confederate accounts-- maybe not apples and oranges, but Gala and Red Delicious. My sense is that if a soldier made it to the general hospital and then died, he would be considered mortally wounded. If he died at an earlier stage of evacuation (aid station or field hospital), he would be considered killed in action. The Federals took the unusual step of establishing a general hospital at Gettysburg (which functioned for months and at which 349 soldiers died). There was so much carnage and confusion, it is possible that a soldier considered as mortally wounded might actually have died before a comrade counted as killed in action. Thus, I think we ought to speak in general terms and not purport to be exacting in such statistics. Chuck Teague, Park Ranger, GNMP
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