not serve. Total serving, 58,812. Discharged before the end of their term, 9169, including 7200 for disability. Killed in battle and died of wounds, 607; ordinary deaths, 6216; accidental, 192; total, 7015. Wounded, about 1340. Resignations, 279. Desertions, 3876. The number of ordinary deaths and discharges for disability was probably still larger, for the returns were incomplete. Some "ordinary" deaths probably resulted from wounds. July, 1848, there were (officers included) 24,033 regulars and 23,117 volunteers. Nearly all official figures of casualties are approximate. (Discrepancies exist in the accounts)
One may consult also: Ho. 42, 48; 29, 2. Sen. 36; 30, 1. Ohio Arch. and Hist. Qtrly., 1912, p. 280. Ill. State Hist. Soc. Trans., 1912, p. 17 (W. E. Dodd). Lawton, Artill. Off., 317. Sen. 4; 29, 2. Picayune, Nov. 4, 1847. Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 1114. 117R. Jones to Mayer, Feb. 8, 1849. Brackett, Lane's Brigade, 131, 292. Claiborne, Quitman, ii, app., 311. Semmes, Service, 472. 61R. Jones to Cass, Mar. 9, 1848. Cong. Globe, 45, 3, pp. 1627-8 (Shields). U.S. Army and Navy Journal, Apr. 25, 1885, p. 787. 288Naylor, Alphab. list of American prisoners (1063 in all). Sen. 1; 29, 2, p. 56. Mich. Pioneer Soc. Colls., vi, 20. Rowland, Register, 412. 61Wool to Jones, Jan. 7, 1848.
One of the principal histories of the war gives the deaths resulting from battle as 5101, and the total number as "not less" than 25,000! Many men afflicted with chronic diseases enlisted in the hope of deriving benefit from the climate of Mexico, but died there. Many came home bringing the germs of disease or with enfeebled constitutions.
16. (New regiments) 364Worth to S., Sept. 5, 1846. (Invalids) 291Smith to Pierce, Feb. 2, 1848; 254McClellan, diary, Dec. 5, 1846; Meade, Letters, i, 161-2. (Waste) Meade, Letters, i, 161-2. (Arms) 256Scott to Marcy, Jan. 16, 1847, private. (Undisciplined) 221Hill, diary; 95report of comtee., Jan. 4, 1848; Ho. 60; 30, 1, p. 336 (Taylor); 327Sutherland to father, Aug. , 1847; Scott, supra. (Close) Hitchcock, Fifty Years, 346; Olmsted, Journey, 463. (One) 280Nunelee, diary. (Another) Oswandel, Notes, 476. (Officer) 146Caswell, diary. (N. Car.) Greensborough (N. C.) Morning Post, Apr. 5, 1903. (Braver) Grant, Mems., i, 167-8. (Unreliable) Balbontín, Invasión, 75; Smith, To Mexico, 151. (Imperilled) Ho. 60; 30, 1, pp. 336, 1178 (Taylor); 1049 (Scott); Scott, Mems., ii, 540. 256Marcy to Wetmore, Jan. 6, 1847. (Stimulated) Cong. Globe, 35, 1, pp. 971-2 (Quitman); Stevens, Campaigns, 12; 152Claiborne, mems.
To suppose, as many appear to do, that the only business in war is to fight, is as if one should think that in railroading the only work is to run the trains. The following from Scott's 256letter to Marcy, Jan. 16, 1847, is pertinent: "A regiment of regulars, in fifteen minutes from the evening halt, will have tents pitched and trenched around, besides straw, leaves or bushes for dry sleeping; arms and ammunition well secured and in order for any night attack; fires made, kettles boiling, in order to wholesome cooking; all the men dried, or warmed, and at their comfortable supper, merry as crickets, before the end of the first hour. . . . Volunteers neglect all those points; eat their salt meat raw (if they have saved any at all) or, worse than raw, fried — death to any Christian man the fifth day; lose or waste their clothing; lie down wet, or on wet ground — — fatal to health, and, in a short time, to life; leave arms and ammunition exposed to rain and dews; hence both generally useless and soon lost, and certainly hardly ever worth a cent in battle," etc., etc. So in the field
