1. Do you agree that the old math error in 1867 Adjutant General's report appears to be the basis of the "highest mortality rate" claim?
2. I would be surprised if such a math error has gone un-noticed until now. Is the math error "old news" among those in the know?
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I think there may be some errors in some of the information presented on the Kansas State Historical Society’s web site. I am hoping you can bring this to the attention of the appropriate staff.
The general topic is the mortality rate among Kansas soldiers during the Civil War. It is a commonly cited “fact” that the mortality rate among Kansan troops was higher than for any other state. For example, this statement is made in the “official history” on the Kansas Secretary of State’s website:
http://www.kssos.org/forms/communication/history.pdf
This statement is also on the KSHS website:
http://www.kshs.org/research/topics/war/civilwarkansas.htm
I believe the source of this information is Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Kansas, Vol. 1. - 1861-1865. There is an on-line version of this report at the following link:
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/statewide/military/civilwar/adjutant/index2.html
In this report, there is a table listing a Kansas troop mortality rate of 60.1 per 1000, which is the highest value listed for the various states. This table can be found at:
The rate of 60.1 per 1000 translates to 6.01 percent. The Kansas State Historical Society has a math error on their web site (http://www.kshs.org/research/topics/war/civil.htm), where they report a mortality rate of 61%.
Furthermore, and more significantly, there appears to be an error in the original Adjutant General’s report. I checked the numbers in the table that appears to be the source of the cited “60.1 per 1000” mortality rate. This table can be found at:
From this table, the total mortalities (killed plus died of wounds) for Kansas is 1,000. Using a "number of men enlisted" value of 20,097 (from the same report), the rate is 49.8 per 1000 versus the reported rate of 61.01 per 1000. It is perhaps non-coincidental that if one uses the quota of 16,654 rather than "men enlisted" figure, one gets a rate of 60.05, which is close to the reported rate. A mortality rate of 49.8 per 1000 would not be higher than the rates for some other states presented in the Adjutant General’s Report.
The following is a statement from Cutler's 1883 History of the State of Kansas (http://www.kancoll.org/books/cutler/sthist/milrec-p1.html#MILITARY_RECORD) :
"Statistics show that the losses of Kansas regiments in killed in battle and from disease are greater per thousand than those of any other State...The entire quota assigned to the State was 16,654, and the number raised was 20,097, leaving a surplus of 3,443 to the credit of Kansas."
The numbers cited by Cutler (e.g. 20,097) match up with the number from the Kansas Adjutant General’s Report. Thus, the Kansas Adjutant General’s Report appears to be the source of the “commonly quoted fact” on the mortality rate.
Finally, I found another on-line source of data on battle-related mortality in the Civil War, which is supposed to be taken from A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion (Frederick H. Dyer, 1908). This report can be found at:
http://www.civil-war.net/pages/troops_furnished_losses.html
Attached is a table prepared from the data presented from the above source. As shown in the attached table, the battle-related mortality and total death percentages for Kansas are pretty much in line with the bulk average for all Union troops. This could be another indication that “commonly quoted fact” regarding “the highest mortality rate for Kansas troops” is likely in error.