How were bodies identified during the Civil War?

Neither side’s army had grave registration units; soldiers were not issued official badges of identification. There was no formal policy of notification for the families of those who had died, and neither side had an ambulance service. At least half of the Civil War dead were never identified.

How did soldiers of the Civil War go about helping others identify their bodies in case they encountered death?

There was no official system for notifying next of kin. If a body was identified, a fellow soldier might take it upon himself to write to the family of the deceased explaining how their loved one died and offering words of condolence.

How many Civil War soldiers were unidentified?

Sadly, more than 12,000 of the graves were simply marked “Unknown”—the result of no standard issue identification for the soldiers, no protocol for properly identifying or marking graves, and the sheer magnitude of casualties incurred on a landscape that witnessed four of the war’s costliest battles.

Are Civil War soldiers still being found?

— The National Park Service has discovered the remains of two Civil War soldiers and a battlefield surgeon’s pit at Manassas National Battlefield Park. Together, the National Park Service and the Smithsonian Institution recovered two complete sets of remains, 11 partial limbs and several artifacts from the site.

Who buried Civil War dead?

In the Union army, black contrabands accompanying the army usually got this job, burying the dead with their uniforms, under cloths or in pine boxes as time and available resources allowed.

How did soldiers make sure their bodies would be identified?

Identification would be through pay books, tags, and other physical means by men who did not know the individuals. – some men would be unidentifiable, if the damage to them was such that they ceased to exist as a body or where any form of identification had been lost.

What mortal threats did soldiers face during the Civil War?

Note the mortal threat that soldiers faced from disease. There were an estimated 1.5 million casualties reported during the Civil War. A “casualty” is a military person lost through death, wounds, injury, sickness, internment, capture, or through being missing in action.

Who is considered a casualty in the Civil War?

If a soldier was unable to perform basic duties due to one of the above conditions, the soldier would be considered a casualty. This means that one soldier could be marked as a casualty several times throughout the course of the war. Most casualties and deaths in the Civil War were the result of non-combat-related disease.

How many times could a soldier be marked as a casualty?

This means that one soldier could be marked as a casualty several times throughout the course of the war. Most casualties and deaths in the Civil War were the result of non-combat-related disease. For every three soldiers killed in battle, five more died of disease.

How many soldiers died in the Civil War for desertion?

More soldiers were executed during the American Civil War (1861–1865) than in all other American wars combined. Approximately 500 men, representing both North and South, were shot or hanged during the four-year conflict, two-thirds of them for desertion.