As in other wars, disease was the major killer in the Civil War.  The camps brought together people and their diseases which flourished in the conditions of poor sanitation and  poor nutrition.  There were 204,000 combat deaths on both sides, and over 471,000 wounded.  Diseases and non-combat injuries claimed over 417,000 lives, more than twice as many as died in battle.  One in ten Northern men and one in four Southern men died or were incapacitated as a result of the war.
	Shelby Foote.  The Civil War: A Narrative Red River to Appomattox. Random House, 1974.