Losses

The monument to the 116th Pennsylvania features a fallen soldier.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

This page provides a listing of units on both sides which suffered exceptional losses at the Battle of Gettysburg. It also includes losses by state, broken out by both percentage and totals. The numbers used on this page from Busey and Martin’s “Regimental Strengths and Losses,” supplemented by other books.

Estimated total casualties at Gettysburg were 51,112. The Union lost 23,049, of which 3,155 were killed, 14,529 were wounded, and 5,365 were missing. The Confederacy lost 28,063 total, of which 3,903 were killed, 18,735 were wounded, and 5,425 were listed as missing. Soldiers who were listed as “missing” (1) sometimes truly were “missing” (e.g. gotten separated from their unit) and eventually turned up; (2) were in fact killed in action but were mangled beyond recognition; (3) most commonly were captured.

In the Civil War, a soldier was generally listed as “killed” if he died on the battlefield or very shortly thereafter. Many soldiers who are listed as “wounded” in fact were mortally wounded and died in the days and weeks following the battle – some as a direct effect of the wound, while others died of secondary infections.

The numbers which follow are sobering. A soldier in Meade’s Army of the Potomac had about a 1 in 4 chance of becoming a casualty at Gettysburg, while a soldier in Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia had about a 1 in 3 chance. Each represents an individual – fathers, sons, uncles, brothers, friends.

Noteworthy Corps, Divisions, and Brigade Losses

Percentage Losses by Corps – Union

  1. I Corps – 49.6%
  2. XI Corps – 41.3%
  3. III Corps – 39.4%
  4. II Corps – 38.5%
  5. V Corps – 19.9%
  6. XII Corps – 11.1%
  7. Artillery Reserve – 10.2%
  8. Cavalry Corps – 5.1%
  9. VI Corps – 1.8%

Percentage Losses by Corps – Confederate

  1. Longstreet – 37.0%
  2. Hill – 36.5%
  3. Ewell – 32.6%

Percentage Losses by Division – Union

(In parentheses is the unit’s respective rank by total losses).

  1. Robinson (I Corps) – 56.4% (5)
  2. Wadsworth (I Corps) – 55.9% (1)
  3. Barlow (XI Corps) – 52.7%  (8)
  4. Schurz (XI Corps) – 45.7% (7)
  5. Gibbon (II Corps) – 45.6% (6)
  6. Doubleday (I Corps) – 44.7% (2)
  7. Humphreys (III Corps) – 42.5% (3)
  8. Birney (III Corps) – 39.5% (4)
  9. Caldwell (II Corps) – 38.4% (10)
  10. Hays (II Corps) – 35.4% (9)

Percentage Losses by Division – Confederate

(In parentheses is the unit’s respective rank by total losses).

  1. Pickett (Longstreet) – 53.1% (3)
  2. Heth (Hill) – 45.0% (1)
  3. Rodes (Ewell) – 39.2% (2)
  4. Pender (Hill) – 35.8% (4)
  5. Hood (Longstreet) – 32.2% (5)
  6. McLaws (Longstreet) – 32.1% (6)
  7. Johnson (Ewell) – 31.1% (8)
  8. Anderson (Hill) – 30.6% (7)
  9. Early (Ewell) – 27.6% (9)
  10. Stuart (Cavalry) – 4.3% (10)

Percentage Losses by Brigade – Union

  1. Paul (I Corps) – 66.8%
  2. Rowley (I Corps) – 66.0%
  3. Stone  (I Corps) – 64.8%
  4. Meredith (I Corps) – 63.0%
  5. Ames (XI Corps) – 58.2%
  6. Harrow (II Corps) – 56.2%
  7. Cutler (I Corps) – 49.7%
  8. Coster (XI Corps) – 49.1%
  9. Graham (III Corps) – 48.8%
  10. Schimmelfenning (XI Corps) – 48.0%

Percentage Losses by Brigade – Confederate

  1. Iverson (Ewell) – 65.2%
  2. Garnett (Longstreet) – 65.0%
  3. Armistead (Longstreet) – 62.7%
  4. Lang (Hill) – 61.3%
  5. Archer (Hill) – 57.1%
  6. Pettigrew (Hill) – 56.2%
  7. Scales (Hill) – 52.1%
  8. Barksdale (Longstreet) – 49.6%
  9. Wright (Hill) – 49.3%
  10. Lane (Hill) – 45.7%

Total Losses by Brigade – Union

  1. Meredith (I Corps) – 1,153
  2. Paul (I Corps) – 1,026
  3. Cutler (I Corps) – 1,002
  4. Rowley (I Corps)  – 898
  5. Stone (I Corps) – 853
  6. Schimmelfenning (XI Corps) – 807
  7. Carr (III Corps) – 790
  8. Ward (III Corps) – 781
  9. Brewster (III Corps) – 778
  10. Ames (XI Corps) – 778

Total Losses by Brigade – Confederate

  1. Pettigrew (Hill) – 1,450
  2. Armistead (Longstreet) – 1,223
  3. Davis (Hill) – 1,030
  4. Garnett (Longstreet) – 948
  5. Daniel (Ewell) – 926
  6. Iverson (Ewell) – 903
  7. Barksdale (Longstreet) – 804
  8. Lane (Hill) – 792
  9. Wilcox (Hill) – 778
  10. Anderson (Hill) – 722

Regimental Losses

Total Losses – Union

Of the top ten Union regiments by total number of men lost, seven came from the Union I Corps, an astounding figure that attests to the fact that the First Day was not a sideshow to the rest of the battle.

  1. 24th Michigan – 363
  2. 151st Pennsylvania – 337
  3. 149th Pennsylvania – 336
  4. 157th New York – 307
  5. 147th New York – 296
  6. 150th Pennsylvania – 264
  7. 143rd Pennsylvania – 253
  8. 134th New York – 252
  9. 111th New York – 249
  10. 94th New York – 245

Total Losses – Confederate

  1. 26th North Carolina – 687
  2. 11th North Carolina – 366
  3. 11th Mississippi – 312
  4. 5th North Carolina – 289
  5. 23rd North Carolina – 282
  6. 8th Alabama – 266
  7. 42nd Mississippi – 265
  8. 20th North Carolina – 253
  9. 18th Virginia – 245
  10. 28th North Carolina – 237

Greatest Number of Men Killed – Union

  1. 24th Michigan – 67
  2. 147th New York – 60
  3. 111th New York – 58
  4. 149th Pennsylvania – 53
  5. 151st Pennsylvania – 51
  6. 73rd New York – 51
  7. 1st Minnesota – 50
  8. 82nd New York – 45
  9. 72nd Pennsylvania – 44
  10. 134th New York – 42

Greatest Number of Men Killed – Confederate

  1. 26th North Carolina – 172
  2. 11th North Carolina – 108
  3. 11th Mississippi – 102
  4. 42nd Mississippi – 75
  5. 48th Georgia – 70
  6. 23rd North Carolina – 65
  7. 28th North Carolina – 65
  8. 5th North Carolina – 64
  9. 45th North Carolina – 63
  10. 2nd Mississippi and 1st Maryland Battalion (tie) – 56

Percentage Lost – Union

On the Union side, the percentage lost list incorporates many regiments that lost very large numbers of men “missing,” most of whom were captured.

  1. 154th New York – 83.7%
  2. 25th Ohio – 83.6%
  3. 16th Maine – 77.9%
  4. 147th New York – 77.9%
  5. 2nd Wisconsin – 77.2%
  6. 157th New York – 75.1%
  7. 149th Pennsylvania – 74.7%
  8. 24th Michigan – 73.2%
  9. 151st Pennsylvania – 72.2%
  10. 141st Pennsylvania – 71.3%

Percentage Lost – Confederate

  1. 8th Virginia – 92.2%
  2. 23rd North Carolina – 89.2%
  3. 2nd North Carolina Battalion – 82.9%
  4. 26th North Carolina – 81.8%
  5. 18th Virginia – 78.5%
  6. 13th North Carolina – 77.2%
  7. 13th Alabama – 69.5%
  8. 9th Virginia – 68.9%
  9. 28th North Carolina – 68.5%
  10. 20th North Carolina – 68.0%

Losses by State

Union

Ranked by Percentage

  1. Minnesota – 59.3%
  2. New Hampshire – 43.7%
  3. Michigan – 41.9%
  4. Wisconsin – 38.8%
  5. Delaware – 33.2%
  6. New York – 29.0%
  7. Ohio – 28.9%
  8. Maine – 27.5%
  9. Indiana – 27.1%
  10. Connecticut – 26.8%

Ranked by Totals

  1. New York – 6,700
  2. Pennsylvania – 5,886
  3. Massachusetts – 1,537
  4. Ohio – 1,271
  5. U.S. Regulars – 1,224
  6. Michigan – 1,111
  7. Maine – 1,024
  8. Wisconsin – 806
  9. New Jersey – 634
  10. Indiana – 552

Confederate

Ranked by Percentage

  1. Florida – 61.6%
  2. Tennessee – 57.7%
  3. North Carolina – 43.8%
  4. Alabama – 38.0%
  5. Arkansas – 38.0%
  6. Mississippi – 35.3%
  7. Texas – 33.6%
  8. Georgia – 29.5%
  9. South Carolina – 26.6%
  10. Louisiana – 26.4%

Ranked by Totals

  1. North Carolina – 6,124
  2. Virginia – 4,846
  3. Georgia – 3,855
  4. Alabama – 2,551
  5. Mississippi – 1,739
  6. South Carolina – 1,310
  7. Louisiana – 799
  8. Florida – 455
  9. Tennessee – 421
  10. Texas – 420