How deadly was the American Civil War? For decades, historians have largely accepted the century-old estimate of 620,000 male deaths, a figure widely used to identify the Civil War as the “bloodiest” of all American conflicts. However, a recent study by Binghamton University historian J. David Hacker, published in the scholarly journal Civil War History, argues persuasively that this figure is likely woefully inadequate. Indeed, after extensive research in pre- and post-war census records, Hacker puts the total number of male wartime deaths at 750,000, a remarkable increase given the size of the country’s population at the time. The following graphics, based on Hacker’s findings, illustrate some of the ways in which the Civil War had a much greater human cost than previously imagined.
Civil War Deaths / Male (all races)
- Previous Estimate: 620,000
- New Estimate: 750,000
Civil War death rates, white men age 10–39 / 1860, by state of birth. Map of the United States shaded by death rate per 1000.
Civil War Deaths (white men of military age)
- Previous Estimate: 1 in 13
- New Estimate: 1 in 10
Civil War Widows
- Previous Estimate: 163,000
- New Estimate: 200,000
Civil War Orphans
- Previous Estimate: 391,000
- New Estimate: 480,000
Bar chart showing death rates of American wars (deaths per 10,000 population), with the American Civil War at 208 being the highest.
Death Rates of American Wars (deaths per 10,000 population)
- Revolutionary War (1775–83): 116
- War of 1812 (1812–15): 24
- Mexican War (1846–48): 6
- American Civil War (1861–65): 208
- Spanish-American War (1898): <1
- World War I (1914–18): 11
- World War II (1939–45): 30
- Korean War (1950–53): 3
- Vietnam War (1955–75): 3
- Iraq & Afghanistan Wars (2003–): <1
Death in American Wars (total deaths)
- Revolutionary War: 25,000
- War of 1812: 20,000
- Mexican War: 13,283
- Civil War: 750,000
- Spanish-American War: 2,246
- World War I: 116,516
- World War II: 405,399
- Korean War: 53,686
- Vietnam War: 58,209
- Iraq and Afghanistan: 6,023 (as of September 2, 2011)
Source
J. David Hacker, “A Census Based Count of the Civil War Dead” Civil War History vol. 57, no. 4 (December 2011): 307-348. To learn more about Civil War History, visit the journal’s website.
