There are clusters of losses around major campaigns, but 1812 seems remarkably light in losses. I suspect this is because of how losses were recorded - the regiment never received news of most men hospitalised during the campaign, so couldn't update records. 3/ - ThreadSky

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graemecallister.bsky.social • 26 days ago

There are clusters of losses around major campaigns, but 1812 seems remarkably light in losses.

I suspect this is because of how losses were recorded - the regiment never received news of most men hospitalised during the campaign, so couldn't update records. 3/

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graemecallister.bsky.social•26 days ago

So if we add in men last recorded as wounded or hospitalised to the numbers, we get this graph.

As you can see, losses in September 1812 (Borodino) and Oct/Nov (the retreat) are enormous, dwarfing those of earlier in the wars. 4/

graemecallister.bsky.social•26 days ago

But this may again not be an accurate reflection of loss, as many men who disappeared or were left behind on the battlefield after a defeat were just recorded as 'presumed POW'. This was especially the case in 1813, when 1,844 men were 'presumed POW'. 5/

graemecallister.bsky.social•26 days ago

So if we add men last recorded in the registers as POW/presumed POW (i.e. they were never heard of again by the regiment), we get this graph.

Note it isn't totally accurate, as the 'presumed POW' in 1813 don't have exact dates, so I've divided them evenly between months of active campaigning. 6/

graemecallister.bsky.social•26 days ago

It's slightly impressionistic, but we can start to see here the sheer scale of losses in 1812 and 1813 compared to earlier in the wars.

Again, any man who returned to the unit at any point is not included in these figures - these are just men never heard of again for one reason or another. /End

maniagnosis.bsky.social•26 days ago

If the unit had ~5000 men at the start of 1812, that's well north of 50% loss in 1812 and nearly as much again in 1813.

😱

graemecallister.bsky.social•26 days ago

Absolutely. The regiment (and indeed much of the army) was virtually wiped out twice in two years.

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