American History > The U.S. Civil War

How many men died in the Civil War?

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scout1067:
I had thought this was a settled question and the numbers were fairly certain within a narrow band of uncertainty.  This piece from the NYT sheds some different light on the story.  It makes a pretty good argument that the number of Civil War dead has been significantly undercounted since right after the war ended.  I knew that both Union and Confederate records were incomplete in some important ways but had not followed that knowledge through to its logical conclusion about casualty numbers.

Phidippides:
This is a commentary on David Hacker's article which suggests that the new estimated number of 750,000 deaths is becoming more accepted by historians.

New Estimate Raises Civil War Death Toll

Notch:
And I have also read and even had a Civil War teacher tell me that the numbers probably range more into the 1 million range when you start counting those who died from wounds/disease, etc CAUSED by the war as well and non-combatants who died as a result of the war.

The 650k number I believe is very conservative and only looks at soldier combat/disease deaths and not the two above mentioned groups.

skiguy:
Were slaves/escaped slaves counted?

Phidippides:
I'm guessing that combatants were the only ones included, which makes the number potentially more "useful" when comparing to other wars.  But the overall death rates (slaves, others who died as a result of the war) is naturally much higher. 

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