Just to throw some figures out there…
Gettysburg took place over 3 days. But really was about 16 hours of fighting. Half the day of July 1. All day July 2. And the morning of July 3 — Picketts Charge and minimal withdrawal skirmishes.
In those roughly 16 hours, 51000 soldiers were killed or wounded. 10k killed. That is 10 per minute killed. That is 40 per minute wounded. Or a casualty per second for 16 hours.
About 170,000 soldiers fought.
10,000 bodies were left in a town of 900
Residents. There was no organized Army Graves Registration or follow-up until 1864.
120 tons of rifled musket ammunition were fired. That is roughly 53 Million rounds. 3.3
Million shots per hour — an average of 20 shots per soldier per hour. (Keeping in mind not all were front line troops… it was much higher for most of the front line combatants.)
Another 309 tons of ammunition were fired by artillery.
No wonder they are still digging up minie’s!
I cannot imagine being on that battlefield.
Sirhr