BRITISH AND ALLIES.
Officers Casualties.
and men
Battles. engaged. Number. Per 1000
--------------------
Alexandria . . . . .
Maida . . . . . . .
Vimiciro . . . . . .
Corunna . . . . . .
Talavera . . . . . . 56,000 6,268 112
Busaco . . . . . . . 57,000 1,300 23
Barrosa . . . . . . 14,500 1,610 111
Fuentes de Onore . . 35,200 1,469 42
Albuera . . . . . . 37,000 6,500 176
Salamanca . . . . . 54,200 4,964 92
Vittoria . . . . . . 95,800 4,829 50
Pyrenees . . . . . . 65,000 6,540 101
Nivelle . . . . . . 90,600 2,621 29
Orthés . . . . . . . 43,600 2,200 50
Toulouse . . . . . . 54,400 4,641 85
New Orleans . . . .
Waterloo . . . . . . 230,600 36,590 159
Alma . . . . . . . . 55,000 3,545 64
Inkerman . . . . . .
------- ------ ---
888,900 83,077 92
Estimated casualties
among the missing . . . . 3,787
------
86,864 98
Of those who were engaged in these nineteen battles one in 51.6, or 1.93
per cent., were killed. The deaths in consequence of the battles,
including both those who died of wounds and those that died among the
missing, were one in 30, or 3.3 per cent. of all who were in the fight.
It is worth noticing here, that the British loss in the Battle of New
Orleans was larger than in any other battle here adduced, except in that
of Albuera, in Spain, with the French, in 1811.
In the British army, from 1793 to 1815, including twenty-one years of
war, and excluding 1802, the year of peace, the number of officers
varied from 3,576 in the first year to 13,248 in 1813, and the men
varied from 74,500 in 1793 to 276,000 in 1813, making an annual average
of 9,078 officers and 189,200 men, and equal to 199,727 officers and
4,168,500 men serving one year. During these twenty-one years of war,
among the officers 920 were killed and 4,685 were wounded, and among the
men 15,392 were killed and 65,393 were wounded. This is an annual
average of deaths from battle of 460 officers and 369 men, and of
wounded 2,340 officers and 1,580 men, among 100,000 of each class. Of
the officers less than half of one per cent., or 1 in 217, were killed,
and a little more than two per cent., or 1 in 42, were wounded; and
among the men a little more than a third of one per cent., 1 in 271,
were killed, and one and a half per cent., 1 in 63, wounded, in each
year. The comparative danger to the two is, of death, 46 officers to 37
men, and of wounds, 234 officers to 158 men. A larger proportion of the
officers than of the soldiers were killed and wounded; yet a larger
proportion of the wounded officers recovered. This is attributed to the
fact that the officers were injured by rifle-balls, being picked out by
the marksmen, while the soldiers were injured by cannon- and
musket-balls and shells, which inflict more deadly injuries.