Death & Dying in the Civil War
The year 1861 marked the commencement of a conflict that would forever alter the landscape of American history: the Civil War. This internal struggle proved to be the bloodiest the nation had ever witnessed, foreshadowing the immense loss of life that would characterize the 20th century’s world wars. The sheer scale of mortality during the Civil War is staggering. Estimates generally place the number of soldiers who perished between 1861 and 1865 at approximately 620,000. This figure is roughly equivalent to the combined American fatalities from the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. The Civil War’s death rate, when considered relative to the overall American population, was six times higher than that of World War II. To illustrate the magnitude, a comparable rate in the present-day United States would translate to a staggering six million fatalities.
The Death & Dying in the Civil War presents a grim picture of the human cost of conflict. The Confederate States of America, fighting for its survival against a more affluent and populous Union, bore a disproportionate burden. Confederate soldiers died at a rate three times higher than their Union counterparts. It is estimated that one in five white southern men of military age did not survive the war. Disease proved to be a rampant killer, claiming twice as many soldiers’ lives as battle wounds. This was largely due to poor sanitation and a limited understanding of infectious diseases such as typhoid, typhus, and dysentery.
However, military statistics only paint a partial picture. The war also exacted a heavy toll on the civilian population. Battles raged across farmlands, troop encampments facilitated the spread of epidemics, and guerrilla warfare embroiled civilians, including women and children, in violence and reprisals. Food shortages in the South led to widespread starvation. Unfortunately, there was no systematic effort to document civilian deaths, making it difficult to arrive at a precise count. Historians estimate that approximately 50,000 civilians died during the Civil War, leading to the conclusion that the overall mortality rate in the South surpassed that of many countries during World War I and regions during World War II. The Death & Dying in the Civil War reveals the far-reaching consequences of the conflict, extending beyond the battlefield to impact the lives of countless civilians.
The scale and duration of the war, the magnitude of its battles, and the sheer number of casualties were unprecedented and largely unanticipated. In the South, the loss of loved ones became commonplace, with nearly every household mourning someone. Both the Union and the Confederacy were ill-prepared to handle the overwhelming number of deaths, facing immense challenges in dealing with the bodies on the battlefields, providing adequate mourning, ensuring remembrance, and making sense of the immense loss. This lack of preparedness added to the trauma and suffering experienced by individuals and communities across the nation.
One of the most immediate challenges posed by Death & Dying in the Civil War was logistical: the proper burial of soldiers in the aftermath of battles. Armies were simply not equipped to handle the enormity of the task, particularly after engagements like Antietam or Gettysburg, where thousands of bodies lay scattered across the battlegrounds. Following the single day of fighting at Antietam, for instance, an estimated 23,000 men, along with countless horses and mules, were either killed or wounded. Neither side had established grave registration units, and soldiers were not issued official identification badges. There was no formal policy for notifying families of the deceased, and neither side had a dedicated ambulance service.
Makeshift burial crews, often composed of soldiers detailed to dispose of the dead, frequently lacked essential supplies such as carts and shovels. The time it took to attend to casualties was also woefully inadequate. A week after the battle of Antietam, a Union surgeon reported that "the dead were almost wholly unburied, and the stench arising from it was such as to breed a pestilence." As a result, bodies were often thrown into unidentified mass graves, further compounding the tragedy.
The circumstances surrounding Death & Dying in the Civil War resulted in tens of thousands of soldiers dying unknown, leaving families without any information regarding their loved ones’ fates, the circumstances of their deaths, or their burial locations. It is estimated that at least half of the Civil War dead were never identified. As the war dragged on, these harsh realities became increasingly unbearable. Americans on both sides sought to combat this dehumanization and loss through official and unofficial channels. Soldiers endeavored to locate, bury, and honor their fallen comrades. Merchants began producing and selling identity disks for soldiers, and the men themselves often pinned their names to their uniforms before particularly dangerous encounters.
Voluntary organizations, such as the U.S. Sanitary Commission, emerged to compile lists of the killed and wounded from Union hospitals, create records of battlefield burials, and assist families in locating missing loved ones. For those with the means, embalmed bodies were shipped home. Families also traveled to battle sites in search of dead or wounded relatives, actively seeking information that was otherwise unavailable. They hoped to fill what one northern observer described as the "dread void of uncertainty." Civilian mourning was complicated by the uncertainty surrounding the fate of missing soldiers, the absence of bodies for ritual burial, and the sheer frequency of funerals.
As the bereaved sought ways to mourn, the nation began to grapple with the need to give meaning to the immense loss. Both the North and South recognized the necessity of assuming responsibility for the care of the dead, a responsibility that had previously been largely unacknowledged. In 1862, the U.S. Congress passed a measure granting the President the authority to purchase land and "cause them to be securely enclosed, to be used as a National Cemetery for the soldiers who shall die in the service of the country." Although no specific appropriation or formal policy was implemented at the time, the War Department established cemeteries as emergency circumstances dictated, primarily near military hospitals where large numbers of deceased required burial.
Under the terms of this law, five cemeteries of a somewhat different character were created during the war. These were burial grounds specifically for the dead of particular battles, usually established during lulls in active operations. Three of these cemeteries – Chattanooga, Stones River, and Knoxville in Tennessee – were created by Union Generals. The other two, Antietam in Maryland and Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, were established through the joint efforts of northern states whose citizens had fought in those battles. These early national cemeteries represented a significant step toward honoring the sacrifice of the Union dead.
The conclusion of combat in the spring of 1865 provided an opportunity to address the issue of the dead in ways that had been impossible during the war. Clara Barton, driven by the same humanitarian spirit that had led her to nursing during the conflict, established an Office of Missing Men of the United States Army in Washington, D.C., to serve as an information clearinghouse. By the time she closed the office in 1868, she had received over 68,000 letters and obtained information about approximately 22,000 soldiers. Barton’s efforts played a crucial role in providing closure to many families still searching for answers.
Many of the missing soldiers of the Union Army lay in scattered graves across the South, often unmarked and unrecorded. In the fall of 1865, U.S. Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs ordered an assessment of the condition and location of these graves to ensure their protection. This became increasingly urgent in the face of growing bitterness and defiance in the defeated South. Units of northern soldiers were dispatched to search the battlefronts for the remains of their fallen comrades, initiating a massive federally supported reburial program that would last for six years.
In the end, 303,536 Union soldiers were reinterred in 74 new National Cemeteries, and Congress officially established the National Cemetery system. Careful attention to the contents of graves and the documentation received from families and former comrades enabled the identification of 54% of the reburied soldiers. Approximately 30,000 of those reinterred were black soldiers. Reflecting the segregation they experienced in life as members of the U.S. Colored Troops, they were buried in areas designated as "colored."
This federal effort, however, was limited to Union soldiers. Outraged by the official neglect of their own dead, white southern civilians, primarily women, mobilized private resources to accomplish what the federal government would not. In Petersburg, Virginia, for example, the Ladies Memorial Association oversaw the reinterment of 30,000 Confederate soldiers in the city’s Blandford Cemetery. These acts of remembrance underscored the deep divisions that persisted even after the war’s end.
Memorial Day:
Memorial Day, now a national holiday honoring all Americans who have died in military service, originated as "Decoration Day." Claims suggest it began in June 1861 when Civil War soldiers’ graves were decorated in Warrenton, Virginia. Documentation also shows women in Savannah, Georgia, decorating Confederate graves in 1862. Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, claims to be Memorial Day’s birthplace because women decorated soldiers’ graves on July 4, 1864, at the National Cemetery in Gettysburg.
The first widely recognized observance of "Decoration Day" occurred on May 1, 1865, after the war. Black residents of Charleston, South Carolina, and teachers and missionaries, organized an event to honor 257 Union prisoners who died at the Charleston Race Course. Nearly 10,000 people attended, laying flowers on the burial field, now Hampton Park. Years later, it was labeled "First Decoration Day" in the North. Other observances occurred throughout the North and South, with "Memorial Day" first used in 1882 but not becoming common until after World War II.
Memorial Day became an official Federal Holiday in 1967. In June 1968, the United States Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, moving the observance to a Monday to create a three-day weekend, shifting it from May 30 to the last Monday in May. The Holiday Act became law in 1971.
Today, Memorial Day honors those who have fallen in service with solemn observances and family gatherings. Traditionally, the U.S. Flag is raised to the top of the staff, then lowered to half-staff in the morning to remember the million-plus who have died in service. At Noon, the flag is raised to full staff to honor the living, who resolve that the fallen have not died in vain.