"What a Devastating Experience This Was"

"The old figure dates back well over a century, the work of two Union Army veterans who were passionate amateur historians: William F. Fox and Thomas Leonard Livermore.

"Fox, who had fought at Antietam, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, knew well the horrors of the Civil War. He did his research the hard way, reading every muster list, battlefield report and pension record he could find."

Guy Gugliotta in The New York Times reports on new, higher estimates of Civil War deaths.