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Random thoughts on 20the ME regimental casualties in the Civil War
Posted on 4/27/25 at 11:28 pm
Posted on 4/27/25 at 11:28 pm
Feeling random so…
So I was watching the directors cut of Gods and Generals as they attack Mary’s Heights.
And I got to thinking…. The 20th Maine was in most of the famous battle that the Army of the Potomac had. Including two of the most brutal portions of the war in the charge at Fredericksburg and Little Round Top.
Per the movies, you’d think that the 20th Maine lost at least 3/4th of its men. We obviously know that’s not true.
So I looked at Wikipedia and got some stats.
41% of those who joined the 20th Maine (1600 men) were casualties. Nearly 400 were wounded in action which is by far the biggest category.
What really surprised me was that men who died from disease and combat were about even at around 145 men a piece. Now why that is surprising is that disease was far and away the biggest killer in the civil war. Only 1/6 of deaths in the war were combat deaths. Disease being responsible for the vast majority of deaths in the civil war.
I feel like I’m missing some metric or statistical concept here that I’m too sleepy to think about but do we think the 20 ME combat deaths were extra high or disease deaths low?
So I was watching the directors cut of Gods and Generals as they attack Mary’s Heights.
And I got to thinking…. The 20th Maine was in most of the famous battle that the Army of the Potomac had. Including two of the most brutal portions of the war in the charge at Fredericksburg and Little Round Top.
Per the movies, you’d think that the 20th Maine lost at least 3/4th of its men. We obviously know that’s not true.
So I looked at Wikipedia and got some stats.
41% of those who joined the 20th Maine (1600 men) were casualties. Nearly 400 were wounded in action which is by far the biggest category.
What really surprised me was that men who died from disease and combat were about even at around 145 men a piece. Now why that is surprising is that disease was far and away the biggest killer in the civil war. Only 1/6 of deaths in the war were combat deaths. Disease being responsible for the vast majority of deaths in the civil war.
I feel like I’m missing some metric or statistical concept here that I’m too sleepy to think about but do we think the 20 ME combat deaths were extra high or disease deaths low?
6
Posted on 4/27/25 at 11:29 pm to athenslife101
Only Tyga Woods can start a thread title with “Random”. It causes confusion and lost hope.
Posted on 4/28/25 at 6:31 am to athenslife101
Little Round Top was not NEARLY as strategically important as Chamberlain and subsequently Shaara made it out to be.
Beautiful views though since access reopened last year.
Beautiful views though since access reopened last year.
Posted on 4/28/25 at 6:39 am to athenslife101
This article from the Feb 1971 issue of American Heritage magazine is a good first person account of what it was like to be wounded LINK
Re disease: my great great grandfather was a 15 year old drummer boy in the 7th Mississippi. He survived a measles epidemic in camp without catching it and helped nurse the other soldiers. He caught measles in his fifties and died from it.
Re disease: my great great grandfather was a 15 year old drummer boy in the 7th Mississippi. He survived a measles epidemic in camp without catching it and helped nurse the other soldiers. He caught measles in his fifties and died from it.
This post was edited on 4/28/25 at 6:42 am
Posted on 4/28/25 at 7:39 am to Jim Rockford
quote:
He survived a measles epidemic in camp without catching it and helped nurse the other soldiers. He caught measles in his fifties and died from it.
Wow. I was sure he was immune.
Posted on 4/28/25 at 3:52 pm to athenslife101
quote:
What really surprised me was that men who died from disease
The first war the US fought where combat deaths exceeded deaths from disease was WW2.
Joshua Chamberlain was in over 20 battles, was wounded six times and had six horses shot from beneath him. At Petersburg, he was shot through the bladder. This was the wound that finally killed him.
In 1914.
Posted on 4/28/25 at 4:07 pm to athenslife101
Men from Maine are pussies.
Add that to your equation.
Add that to your equation.
Posted on 4/28/25 at 5:45 pm to jizzle6609
Pretty sure men from Maine are notoriously some of the toughest SOBs in the country. Known for being excellent shots from so much deer hunting in the civil war
Posted on 4/28/25 at 5:57 pm to athenslife101
quote:
Pretty sure men from Maine are notoriously some of the toughest SOBs in the country. Known for being excellent shots from so much deer hunting in the civil war
Yeah and then turn around down the road to invite transgenders to frick their kids.
Sounds like a good group of men.
This post was edited on 4/28/25 at 5:58 pm
Posted on 4/28/25 at 5:59 pm to jizzle6609
quote:the hell is this
Yeah and then turn around down the road to invite transgenders to frick their kids.
Posted on 4/28/25 at 6:02 pm to TT9
quote:
the hell is this
Have you not seen Maine bucking the government at ever my single turn?
They are a pain in the arse for being so worthless.
Their governor keeps playing games.
I call it like I see it.
Posted on 4/28/25 at 6:07 pm to jizzle6609
It's their bullshite governor that's doing it. She'll get voted out.
Posted on 4/28/25 at 6:09 pm to TT9
quote:
It's their bullshite governor that's doing it. She'll get voted out.
They voted her in and are allowing it.
That’s the type of men they have. If those are some tough guys we should just bend over for Canada.
This post was edited on 4/28/25 at 6:10 pm
Posted on 4/28/25 at 6:40 pm to athenslife101
quote:Rookie numbers, the Scottish unit (Cameron Highlanders) pictured at Edinburgh Castle both in 1914 heading to France and again upon their return in 1918:
41% of those who joined the 20th Maine (1600 men) were casualties. Nearly 400 were wounded in action which is by far the biggest category.
WWI was an absolute mechanized industrial trench warfare muthafricka.
Posted on 4/28/25 at 7:29 pm to soccerfüt
quote:
WWI was an absolute mechanized industrial trench warfare muthafricka.
Though some Euro conflicts incorporated some of these on a small scale, the 1864 Atl Campaign and to a greater degree 1864 Overland Campaign in the ACW were a precursor to this. If you look at the trenches, redoubts, saps, traverses etc they resemble WW1 trenches but 50 years prior. Most have been destroyed bc of ‘progress’ but certain National and State Parks throughout the East have some incredibly preserved Earthworks.
It was all there and helped warfare evolve from Napoleonic tactics completely to 20th century tactics, though early WW1 still incorporated absolutely idiotic uniforms and tactics against the evolved weaponry.
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