Gettysburg , July 1,2,3 1863.

[Douglas J Schrack]

One hundred and seventy nine years ago one of the greatest land battles in military history took place. The statistics are staggering!
Union Army- 3,155 killed, 14,525 wounded, 5,365 missing/captured. Total- 23,045.
Confederate Army- 2,632 killed, 12,,809 wounded, 5,247 missing/captured. Total- 20,688.
Corps Commanders killed, 1- Maj. Gen. John Reynolds
Division Commanders killed, 1- Maj. William D. Pender
Brigade Commanders killed, 11- Brig. Generals Weed, Farnsworth, Garnett, Armistead, Barksdale, Semmes. Colonels Cross, Zook, Willard, Vincent, Avery.

Of the 27,574 muskets picked up on the battlefield and turned in to the arsenal, at least 2,400 were loaded. About one half of this number contained two charges each and one fourth contained from three to ten charges each.

Time has not erased your memory. We salute you all !

Doug

[David S]

I tip my also...

I have walked the Gettysburg sites...very stirring!

It's time to reread The Killer Angelsagain

David

[Tony Farrell]

I make it one hundred & thirty nine years ago. Still, bloody terrifying casualty rate of Napoleonic proportions.

[Frank Mills]

*

[Frentebro]

As a counterpoint, it's equally amazing that in the entire Revolutionary War, which lasted ten years, the rebels had only about 1200 KIA! (I've been unable to find figures for French casualties in the war. If anyone knows, please post. Also British & German).

[Rick Research]

There must be a comma and a zero missing there. I'd think 12,000 closer to the mark.

Then there were always the "messy category" casualties-- counted, or not?

My 80 year old 7th great-grandfather Deliverance Painter drowned himself (but took eleven vile Brits with him, nyah huh hah) off Stratford Point, West Haven, Connecticut being dragged away in a longboat as a hostage to rot in a New York harbor prison barge after a raid by his/my traitorous cousin, Ben Arnold, 1st September 1781. As a "collateral casualty" (technically a suicide-- perhaps even a "homicide drowner" by today's lingo?), doubt poor old feisty Deli was counted, at all....

BTW There was only ONE civilian fatality at Gettysburg, a teenaged girl shot by a random bullet as she made bread inside her house (ALWAYS HIDE IN THE CELLAR!!!!!!).

[JaimeH]

As important as the battle at Gettysburg was, the fall of Vicksburg the same week did more to put the final nail in the coffin of the confederacy.

PS. There is a good WWII museum at Gettysburg containing tons of German uniforms etc.

[Ralph A]

Sir Ralph Abercrombie

was a famous Tory general. but also....

Sir Ralph Abercrombie

[Tony Farrell]

I know that pub.. well, I would wouldn't I?
It's been a few years since I was in it though.
What a place to find a link to on this website. Bizarre!

[Frentebro]

Actually, Rick, it seems we were both mistaken. Fleming in his history of the Revolutionary War gives 6284 rebel KIA. Still extremely low even allowing for inevitable miscounting. He also figures about 10,000 died of disease & about 8500 died as prisoners (probably most of them also of disease), for a grand total of about 25,324 deaths from all causes during the entire war. But while low as an absolute number, in terms of the %age of the entire colonial population black & white, it was second only to the Civil War for American dead: 12.5% of forces engaged compared to 13.5 in the Civil War. (However, this does not of course include Loyalist dead.)
I have still not found any source stating Loyalist, British, German, or French casualties; no historian on this side of the water seems to think they're worth mentioning.

Gettysburg is of course often called the High Water Mark of the Confederacy; Pickett's Charge lends itself to that dramatic label & it was the northernmost battle, but John Blum & Bruce Catton in The National Experience say that this point was actually the battle of Antietam, which was the closest the CSA ever came to victory in the war, with no successful offensives following.