Deadly numbers:
Disease and mortality in the 56th N.Y. Volunteers
By way of background, 2,207 men served in the ranks of the 56th New York between 1861 and 1865. Of those, 2,197 enlisted or were commissioned, one was drafted, and eight transferred in. (This adds up to 2,106; the source material doesn't explain the discrepancy.)
Sixty-three men were killed or mortally wounded, and 213 died of disease. There were 344 men discharged for disability, 188 who deserted, 119 who were discharged, 1,102 who mustered out, 69 who transferred out, and 106 whose fate is not known. One officer was killed and three died of disease, accident, or other non-combat-related cause.
From November 1861 to March 1862, the regiment served in the defenses of Washington. From March-December 1862, the regiment served in Virginia, having taken part in the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days' Battles before Richmond, and then in camp at the foot of the Peninsula (between the James and York rivers) after the Battle of Malvern Hill.
The regiment spent a week or two in North Carolina in January 1863, and then spent the rest of the war exclusively in South Carolina, until it was mustered out in October 1865.
In 1861, before the regiment left New York State, one man died of consumption, one of typhoid, and one of smallpox.
While in the defenses of Washington, 36 men died of disease (21 to typhoid, two to smallpox, one each to measles, catarrh of brain, brain disease, fever, and bowel inflammation, and eight of unknown causes.
In Virginia, 39 died of disease (16 of unknown or unstated causes, 13 of typhoid, four of consumption, two of diarrhea, two of fever, and one each to "Peninsula fever" and lung congestion).
In South Carolina, disease claimed 92 lives (31 to typhoid, 19 to diarrhea, 17 to unknown causes, seven to congestive fever, three to brain fever, two to pernicious fever, two to suicide, two to dysentery, two to bilious fever, and one each to inflammation, exposure, fever, brain inflammation, congestive chills, gastroenteritis, and malignant fever).
From 1862 on, in New York, one man each died of brain congestion, dropsy, alcoholism, congestive fever, and pneumonia, two died of diarrhea, two of consumption, five of typhoid, and six of unknown causes. Presumably, most of these men were in New York on leave at the time of their demise.
Six men died in places not listed of unknown causes. One died in Rhode Island, cause unknown. Two died in Philadelphia of typhoid, and one died of unknown causes elsewhere in Pennsylvania (location not stated). One died of typhoid in Tennessee in September 1865. Two died of unknown causes in Maryland. One died in North Carolina of typhoid, one from unknown causes. One died in Newark, N.J., of consumption; evidently, he took sick as the regiment headed by rail from New York to Washington in November 1861, was placed in a hospital in Newark, and succumbed there sometime in early 1862.
Sources: New York State Adjutant-General's Report; Historical Data Systems Inc. (www.civilwardata.com)