I just wanted to follow up on the discussion a short while back about Alabama casualties during the war. I went over my rosters for the 9th Alabama Regiment and came up with the following data:

Total enrollments in the 9th Alabama during the war: 1,506

killed in action: 128
died of wounds in battle, or illness: 163 (Total deaths 291)
wounded: 318
missing: 10
captured: 255
total casualties: 874 (58% of all enrollees)

Also, 81 were discharged, 27 deserted, and 20 transferred.
6 officers and 70 men of the 9th Alabama surrendered at Appomattox.

I took a quick and dirty look at the Wilcox (Alabama) Brigade, which would include the 8th-9th-10th-11th-14th Alabama Regiments (the regiments did change from time to time in the Brigade, so the totals for the Brigade are for 5 regiments across the war, regardless of their brigade status):

8th AL 1,377 enrolled; 300 killed; 170 died; 300 wounded;

236 discharged
9th AL 1,506 enrolled; 128 killed; 163 died; 318 wounded;

265 captured; 81 discharged; 47 deserted or transferred
10th AL 1,429 enrolled; 300 killed; 180 died; 300 wounded;

249 discharged
11th AL 1,192 enrolled; 270 killed; 200 died; 300 wounded;

251 discharged or transferred
14th AL 1,317 enrolled; 141 killed; 178 died; 344 wounded;

122 discharged or captured

Totals: 6,821 enrolled; 1,139 killed; 891 died; 1562 wounded; 291 captured. 57% casualties out of total enrollment (3,883). The captured totals are mostly absent in this report, so the % will be higher when those are added later. If the captured total for the 9th is a good average, then another 1,000 soldiers would show up as captured, raising total casualties to 4,883 and 72% of enrolled. Since the same man could be wounded several times, captured more than once, and then die; the total casualty figures will be somewhat inflated. It may be meaningless to add the various casualty columns together.

Note: the numbers are reliable for the 9th Alabama in all categories. I have compared and compiled information from historical records and books on the 9th, regimental rosters for the 9th, archive data, and personal letters. I have only looked at on-line data for the other Alabama regiments at this point. I wanted to get an idea of what the aggregate numbers could look like. The wounded totals for the 8th-10th-11th are approximations- I could not get the exact numbers.I have very incomplete data for captured, deserted, and missing for all regiments except the 9th and the 14th. The killed and those-who-died-after-the-battle totals also look reliable for all five regiments.

If any one has regimental rosters for the 8-10-11 Alabama Regiments, which show casualties by each soldier, I would love to have a copy to put together the information for each regiment.

Is this something we want to compile and put in the Ongoing Research Project file? I would be glad to work the data for the above regiments and put it into an Excel or Word file. Also, this is a starting point- the numbers are open for discussion and I have already seen different numbers for the 9th from a number of sources. Part of the problem, I think, is the need to carefully define each casualty type (especially killed-in-action versus died after action; missing versus captured; and discharged versus deserted). Anyone's input would be appreciated.

John