Adding the mortally wounded to the killed in action, the total fatalities amount to 20 officers and 265 enlisted men or 285 in all.
In making this estimate the number reported “Missing in action” is included in the list of the “Killed in action,” on the ground that the battles in which they were lost were fought on fields retained by the enemy or immediately vacated by our troops, and as none of the missing reported, nor were reported as wounded or prisoners, and have never since been heard from, it is only right to include them among those known to have been killed.
It is possible that ten of them may be rightly deducted from the number in the above table, leaving the aggregate forty instead of 50. That would leave our fatalities in action at 275.
Of the New York regiments included in Fox's 300 fighting regiments of the Civil War, only one, the 69th New York, is reported as having a greater percentage of loss than the 121st. The record is: The 69th: enrolled, 1513; killed, 259; percent,
17.1. The 121st: enrolled, 1426; killed, 226; percent,
15.5.
But giving the 121st due credit for its actual fatalities would put it among the very first of all,
