Junior has a fiction writing assignment with the requirement that it be set in the Civil War.
The thread title is my question. Would they be going to town to see a posted list or would there have been individual notification?
According to Gone with the Wind, a peer-reviewed text, information was sent to the newspaper offices and a list was posted there for everyone to read.
If movies have taught me anything, it would be with lengthy, flowing prose written by either Abraham Lincoln or Robert E Lee himself.
Casualty lists were routinely published by the War Department and printed in newspapers. Since the units were organized by state, it was easy for a newspaper to group things for local interest.
I see the New York Times published various casualty lists in articles after Gettysburg:
THE CASUALTIES.; List of Killed, Wounded and Missing in the Second Vermont Brigade, Third Division, First Army Corps, in the Battles of the 2d and 3d July instant. Jul 8, 1863. p. 1
FURTHER LIST OF CASUALTIES.; First Brigade, Regular Infantry Second Division, Fifth Corps. Killed. Second Lieut, S. A. Miller, 12th infantry. Wounded. Returns of Casualties, July 2, 1863, Second Brigade, Second Division, Fifth Corps. Casualties in Third Brigade, Second Division Fifth Army Corps, July 2 and 3, 1863. Third Brigade–First Division THE DEATH OF COL. HUSTEN. WHERE GEN. REYNOLDS FELL. Jul 9, 1863. p. 1
THE NEW-YORK SECOND MILITIA. (a list of those in that unit). New York, N.Y.: Jul 10, 1863. p. 1
Casualties among Officers in the One Hundred and Fifieth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers, at Gettysburgh, July 1. Jul 16, 1863.
As the dates indicate, the lists appeared haphazardly, but would give the information.
I’ve also seen drawings of the time that showed people reading lists that were put up outside the telegraph office.
Of course they already had the telegraph in those days. Would they ever have used that, as they did up through WWII and perhaps even later? Of course, I imagine this is how the newspapers got the information for their lists.
It never occurred to me before, but I imagine then as now each unit’s clerk had the gruesome task of compiling the casualty list after a hard-fought battle.
Telegrams were alot more expensive during the Civil War than during WWII. While it’s possible newspapers used them I highly doubt the War Department sent individual telegrams to each soldier’s family. I could see them doing it for some general’s family or the son of a prominent family.
There is a tradition in the Army (& in armies, tradition ranks one step below God) that the Captain of any US Soldier who dies in battle must write a personal, individual, letter to the parents & wife (if any).
You can be court-martialed for failing to do so, or palming the job off.
This tradition dates back to the Revolution & the foundation of the Republic. Washington demanded it of his Captains, & all followed suit. No US soldier is a peasant levy, but a Citizen Soldier of the Republic, & shall receive the dignities of same.
One of the traditions I most approve of, but a heartbreaker for the Officers.
This was the first notification. Begin from there.
This reminds me of an episode of MAS*H. In the episode, an ambulance taking away wounded soldiers flips over because the driver is driving to fast.
Col. Potter screams out, “Where is that damn idiot driver!?!? His job isn’t to get them to Tokyo as fast as possible! His job is to get them there alive! Now where is he? I want to talk to him!”
Radar looks pale and says to Potter, “He’s dead, sir.”
I remember the color going out of Potter’s face, realizing he just bashed a dead man. Radar writes the letter home to the driver’s mother, filled with praise about his driving and his dedication. Potter signs it, with tears in his eyes.
Such a good show.