Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 40.djvu/321

Rh of the 600,000 Confederates were therefore confided to the Confederate surgeons for battle wounds. For the nineteen months—January, 1862, to July, 1863, inclusive—over 1,000,000 cases of wounds and sickness were entered upon the Confederate field reports and over 400,000 cases of wounds upon the hospital reports. It is estimated that each of the 600,000 Confederates were, on an average, disabled for greater or less periods, by wounds and sickness, about six times during the war. The heroic, untiring, important part thus borne by the skillful Confederate surgeons in maintaining in the field an effective army of unexampled Confederate soldiers must challenge particular attention.

The destruction by fire of the medical and surgical records of the Confederate States, deposited in the Surgeon General's office, in Richmond, Va., in April, 1865, renders the roster of the Medical Corps somewhat imperfect, hence the need of concerted action on the part of the survivors to bridge this hiatus. The official list of the paroled officers and men of the Army of Northern Virginia, surrendered by Gen. R. E. Lee, April 9, 1865, furnished 310 Surgeons and Assistant Surgeons. In my first report, presented at the Richmond reunion, I showed that the medical roster of the Army of Tennessee had been preserved in duplicate. I shall offer in a more detailed report data to prove indisputably important facts resulting to the prisoners of war upon both sides, with the purpose of establishing the death rate responsibility in the premises. It will suffice to mention here that the report of Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War, on the 19th of July, 1866, exhibits the fact that of the Federal prisoners in Confederate hands during the war only 22,700 died, while of the Confederate prisoners in Federal hands 26,436 died. This report does not set forth the exact number of prisoners held by each side respectively.

These facts were given more in detail by a subsequent report by Surgeon General Barnes, of the United States Army.

The whole number of Federal prisoners captured by the Confederates and held in Southern prisons from first to last during the war was, in round numbers, 270,000, while the whole 'number of Confederates captured and held in prisons by the