Civil War Deaths

I was looking through some old emails and found a set from 4 or so years ago. I had corresponded with a man who had a newspaper account of casualties from the Battle of Honey Springs/Elk Horn Tavern. The article listed Confederate casualties only. The majority were for men of the 20th and 29th Texas Cavalries.

It amazed that 63 deaths (if I counted correctly) in east central Indian Territory were reported in a Texas newspaper. And along with the deaths were included names of those injured mortally, severely, and slightly. The list was by Regiment and then by company within the regiment. Within the company, casualties were divided by rank.

This just goes to show that sometimes you have to look elsewhere for records from "here". I doubt that ANY Indian Territory newspaper listed deaths from the battle. And the list in this newspaper article is more complete than I have seen in the Official Records.

And even better, my correspondent in a separate email included in brackets the full name of the soldiers as listed in Broadstreet's Index of Confederate Soldiers from Texas. Nearly all names in the newspaper article are initials only. So to have the full names is especially pleasing.

114,000 Entries

The total number of entries in my Oklahoma Death Index to 1920 is now at 114,135. For all the work I've put in the past 18 months, that sure doesn't sound like much. But it far exceeds my goal of 1000 entries per week!

I took a break during the month of January 2010 to catch up on a graves registration project for the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW). But am now back at entering data. I have entered deaths from my Payne County OK Cemetery Index for pages 265 through 604. Just 264 pages more to go! At lunch at the office I've been entering deaths from Indian Territory, Oklahoma Territory and Oklahoma from the Civil War pension index. Oddly enough, I've found several men who served in the Indian Wars, Spanish American War, Mexican War, and in peace time; all in the Civil War Pension Index. I've worked my way through the first 600 of about 16,500 records. Slow going....

I will try to post twice a week. One post will be an "article" about a specific record type or record location. The other post will be an update on where I am in the database creation process: number of entries, sources working on, etc.

Next post will be next weekend. I'll be in Houston TX on business til then.