Talk:Battle of Harpers Ferry

Citation needed

Does anyone have a citation for this, from the "Aftermath" section of the article:

"... the Union Army sustained 12,636 (44 killed, 173 wounded, 12,419 captured)."

In the article it's cited to a National Park Service page which is a dead link, and the current NPS page [1] gives a figure of 12,700 captured, with no mention of KIAs or wounded. Such a specific piece of information -- like the Confederate killed and wounded earlier in the sentence, should be cited.

Unless anyone can provide a citation, I will replace the information currently in the article with that reported by Sears and Murfin, as indicated in note #23. Beyond My Ken (talk) 08:36, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

I have marked the old NPS age as a dead link and removed it from the article, replacing it with CN tags. I have not, at this point, removed any of the figures given, as I have hope that someone will come up with a citation for them. Beyond My Ken (talk) 23:22, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

I have replaced the CN tags with a cite to an Ohio State "eHistory" page, although I'd like a more authoritative source. Beyond My Ken (talk) 23:27, 21 September 2022 (UTC)

I've added a reference to the NPS CWSAC report data PDF confirming the Ohio State numbers. Mojoworker (talk) 04:02, 5 October 2022 (UTC)

Thanks. The sources are fine, but I'm still somewhat suspicious of the numbers reported because of their precision. In the context of the Civil War, when the accounting of the manpower of both armies -- but especially the Confederates -- was rather lax, to know exactly how many soldiers were wounded, killed and captured is odd. As the Ohio State source says "Casualties are unusually precisely known..." (emphasis added). I don't think there's anything to be done about this, the sources are reliable, and we use what we have, but I find it strange. Beyond My Ken (talk) 04:43, 5 October 2022 (UTC)