Requiem for a Thought

Since 1776 more than 1,261,136 American soldiers have died in military actions. The vast majority of these deaths occurred during the Civil War and the Second World War. These wars and “military operations” include:

Revolutionary War (4,435 deaths)

War of 1812 (2,260)

Mexican War (13,283)

Civil War (620,000 est.)

Spanish-American War (2,446)

First World War (116,516)

Second World War (405,399)

Korean War (36,574)

Vietnam Conflict (58,209)

Persian Gulf War (382)

Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom (1,632 as of Feb. 24, 2005)


These are deaths, though not necessarily “battle” deaths. For instance, during the Civil War and the First World War, more soldiers died of a disease rather than a bullet. Similarly, these figures do not reflect the number of wounded soldiers, which are always much higher—sometimes between two and four times the number of deaths.