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4365

If this was a Civil War section in Richmond then many many unknowns resulted and yes, many went off to war and never were heard from again. Between Cold Harbor and Petersburg the death toll and the destruction of remains was horrendous. This made identification problematic.

As recently as WWI the same was still true across the trench lines for both Allies and Axis. By WWII it improved somewhat, yet still, the ugliness of war leads to many unidentifiable remains- some 70000 for the U.S. in Europe and Asia between 1941-1945. Maybe 14000 in Korea. The U.S. has 7000 missing or unidentifiable soldiers' remains from Vietnam era, some 700 from the time since then in all wars and excursions combined.

EDIT (8/8/7): Accurate figures from Defense Missing Persons Office: WWII 78000; Korea 8000; Vietnam 1780; Since Totals Not available but Gulf War I 1 person (Navy flier Scott Speicher, presumed dead) and Current Iraq theater 4 (missing in action).

How does it happen? Well we generally know at the platoon level when a man goes missing. Is he AWOL, captured, injured, dead, destroyed, drowned, burned, vaporized? We don't always find out. Ultimately, a missing soldier becomes MIA and his remains may or may not ever turn up and strike a DNA match. The dog tag is only usable for remains recovered fairly quickly during the event. Since about 1980, however, the DNA approach has helped identify many remains found in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia if we can get a sample to compare. And since 1990, DNA is the gold standard for all soldiers, sailors, and airmen worldwide.

The civil was was especially bad. The technology of the weapons advanced very much. The tactics of the generals had not advanced (especially in the beginning).

Generals still had their men marching in large formation (think bayonet charge). The new weaponry could simply mow down whole swaths of men. Nobody had ever seen a war like it, and they were totally unprepared to deal with the massive causalities.

My mothers greatgrandfather left Fines Creek NC to report for conscription (sp?) in the Confederate army in 1862 or 63 . No one in the family ever knew what became of him till one of my cousins, using records from NC & the US govt located his (mass) grave at Finns Pt NJ. This was in the late 1970's.

Finns Pt was a Union POW camp, he & a lot more died while in captivity and were buried in mass graves.

His wife received a widows pension from the state of NC. His daughter, my greatgrandmother, said she remembered her and her sister, along with their mother, watching him walk down the lane till he was out of sight. That was the last they saw of him.

His name was Minor Ruff, private, CSA.

RB

345

I've been to several WWI battlefields and around Verdun and Thiepval there are vast mass graves or ossiaries. IIRC a French one contained 100,000 unidentified bodies.
Hoping to pay my respects at the 1918 front line near Amiens next week.

A recent TV documentary stated the newly arrived US troops stopped an attempted push by the Germans towards Paris. Anyone know the place name?

Verdun?