From the August 9th Greensboro (NC) News-Record "Researcher counts NC's death toll in Civil War" by Donald W. Patterson.
As of August 6th, Josh Howard had a total of 29,418 confirmed North Carolina deaths and expects that when he finished the count later this year, that number could be as high as 36,000.
Among that number is Major Laban Odell, a teacher from Randolph County, who had a premonition of his death before the Battle of Chancellorsville, "Tomorrow morning when we go forward, I shall be killed," he told his friend, Captain Frank Siler. "Tell Mary to raise our dear Johnnie right and meet me in Heaven."
As Siler left the battlefield the next day, he found Odell shot and dying. Odell's last words, "I told you so; do as I requested."
For almost 150 years, North Carolina has claimed that the state's death toll was 40,000, but that number can't be substantiated.
To Be Continued. --B-R'er
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