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Henry's term of enlistment with the 21st Massachusetts spanned the regiments hardest fought battles and was also when the regiment sustained its heaviest casualties of the war. 1862 was a turning point in the war where any hope for a quick resolution of the conflict had disappeared. Too much blood had been spilled and the hatred ran too deep for any hope of reconciliation. The series of battles fought during McClellan's Peninsular Campaign, followed by the equally brutal Campaign of Second Manassas, had begun a savage war of attrition. Both of these campaigns also set the stage for the single bloodiest day of the war... the Battle of Antietam. By the end of 1862, the Union and Confederate armies were hopelessly deadlocked in a fight to the death. Out of 1,178 men enrolled in the 21st Massachusetts regiment throughout the war, a total of 250 men (21.3%) lost their lives in the line of duty. Out of this total, 159 were killed in action (13.5 %) and 91 died from disease (7.8%). The total number of casualties who were killed (250) or wounded (311) was 561 which meant that the overall casualty rate for the regiment was a staggering 47.6 per cent. Otherwise, nearly one out of every two soldiers serving in the 21st Massachusetts could expect to be killed or wounded during the course of the war... What is also revealing about these casualty figures is that the 21st Massachusetts had more soldiers who died in combat rather than from disease. The overall national average was exactly the opposite with a 2 to 1 ratio of soldiers dying from disease. What this seems to statistically indicate is that the soldiers of the 21st Massachusetts were under fire more often than your average combat regiment. These same ratios were also found in other better known regiments who were noted for their combat record. It is also worth noting that a majority of the casualties from the 21st Massachusetts occurred during 1862 while Henry was serving in the regiment.
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Total Mortality Rate by Company
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