The author of Beowulf is a mystery, as most poets of the Anglo-Saxon period are. He might have been a court poet, or a monastic poet. Depending on the Christian interpretation of the poem, it could be either.he author of Beowulf is a mystery, as most poets of the Anglo-Saxon period are. He might have been a court poet, or a monastic poet. Depending on the Christian interpretation of the poem, it could be either.
1 An exact count of soldiers who died in combat and from disease during the Civil War is impossible, historians say. 2  Prof Hacker estimates between 650,000 - 850,000 deaths, but believes the most likely number was about 750,000.
The toll of more than a million casualties, 620,000 of them dead, was far greater than in any other war this country has fought. The 620,000 dead were 2 percent of the total American population (North and South) in 1861. By way of comparison, if 2 percent of the American people were to die in a war fought today, the number of American deaths would be more than six million.