Casualty

A member of an armed force unavailable for duty because of death, wounding, sickness, or unexplained absence. Attitudes toward casualties have changed throughout history. In early modern Europe, for instance, when enlisted men were often “the scum of the earth enlisted for drink,” relatively little attention was given to the wounded, missing, sick, or dead. A commander’s foremost concern was filling their empty place in the ranks. Those left in the care of military physicians—as late as the eighteenth century, sometimes barber surgeons with no real medical training—were apt to...

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