How Many Died in the Civil War?

A casualty is someone injured, killed, captured, or missing in a military engagement. The Civil War had plenty of all these. The casualty totals in the Civil War can only be treated as estimates. The exact numbers cannot be exactly known.

Due to exhaustive research by many credible and earnest Civil War scholars, the casualty numbers presented here can be considered to be as accurate as possible. I have relied on trustworthy sources for the numbers and statistics I share in this post. The exact number of Civil War casualties will forever be a topic for debate.

One fact we can be certain of regarding Civil War casualty counts, the carnage of the Civil War was immense. War and disease provided the Grim Reaper with all he desired.

Let us not neglect to know that the cold numbers and statistics shown in this post are facts that represent real people. People who fought in a vicious war, who bled red blood whether they were clothed in blue or gray. People who lost limbs or were severely disfigured, people who died miserable, slow deaths of disease or injury, people who perished instantaneously in groups during battle, or slowly had life ebb away as they sprawled alone and incapacitated in the aftermath of a major battle or minor skirmish. Many died agonizing and feverish deaths of disease. These numbers are human beings.

Do We Know How Many Died?

The quick and simple answer is that no one knows for sure exactly how many died in the Civil War, neither for the North or the South. An estimate of the deaths in the Civil War is 623,026. This means that of men of service age, one out of eleven men died during the Civil War years between 1861 and 1865.

Below is a chart showing how the Civil War compares in total deaths to other wars:

Deaths in American Wars

War	Deaths
Revolutionary War	4,435
War of 1812	2,260
Mexican	13,283
Civil War	623,026
Spanish-American	2,446
World War I	116,516
World War II	406,742
Korea	54,246
Vietnam	57,939

 

How Many Casualties in the Civil War? For both sides in the Civil War, 471,427 can be considered as a minimum number of those wounded. When added to the estimate of 623,026 deaths, the total estimate of Civil War casualties is 1,094,453.

Greatest Union Battle Losses

Date.	Battle	Killed	Wounded	Missing	Aggregate
July 1-3, 1863.	Gettysburg	3070	14497	5434	23001
May 8-18, 1864.	Spotsylvania	2725	13416	2258	18399
May 5-7, 1864.	Wilderness	2246	12037	3383	17666
Sept. 17, 1862.	Antietam (+)	2108	9549	753	12410
May 1-3, 1863.	Chancellorsville	1606	9762	5919	17287
Sept. 19-20, 1863.	Chickamauga	1656	9749	4774	16179
June 1-4, 1864.	Cold Harbor	1844	9,077>	1816	12737
Dec. 11-14, 1862.	Fredericksburg	1284	9600	1769	12653
Aug. 28-30, 1862.	Manassas(++)	1747	8452	4263	14462
April 6-7, 1862.	Shiloh	1754	8408	2885	13047
12/31/62	Stone’s River	1730	7802	3717	13249
June 15-19,1864.	Petersburg (Assault)	1688	8513	1185	11386

+ Not including South Mountain and Crampton’s Gap.
++ Includes Chantilly, Rappahannock, Bristoe Station, and Bull Run Bridge.
Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

The Union Armies lost 110,070 killed or mortally wounded, and 275,175 wounded; for a total of 385,245. This does not include the missing in action. Of the 110,070 deaths from battle, 67,058 were killed on the field and the remaining 43,012 died of wounds.
This table shows how this loss was divided among the different arms of the service:

Service	Officers	Enlisted Men	Total	Ratio of Officers to Men
Infantry	5461	91424	96885	01:16.70
Sharpshooters	23	443	466	01:17.70
Cavalry	671	9925	10596	01:14.70
Light Artillery	116	1701	1817	01:14.60
Heavy Artillery	5	124	129	01:24.80
Engineers	4	72	76	01:18.00
General Officers	67	—-	67	—-
General Staff	18	—-	18	—-
Unclassified	—-	16	16	—-
Total	6365	103705	110070	01:16.20

Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

The losses in the three main categories of Union troops were:

KILLED OR DIED OF WOUNDS
Class	Officers	Enlisted Men	Total	Ratio of Officers to Men
Volunteers	6078	98815	104893	01:16.20
Regulars	144	2139	2283	01:14.80
Colored Troops	143	2751	2894	01:19.20
Total	6365	103705	110070	01:16.30

Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

DIED BY DISEASE. NOT INCLUDING DEATHS IN PRISONS.

Class	Officers	Enlisted Men	Total	Ratio of Officers to Men
Volunteers	2471	165039	167510	02:06.70
Regulars	104	2448	2552	01:23.50
Colored Troops	137	29521	29658	04:35.50
Total	2712	197008	199720	02:12.60

Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

Deaths in the Union Army, from all causes, as officially classified.
DEATHS FROM ALL CAUSES:

Cause	Officers	Enlisted Men	Aggregate
Killed, or died of wounds	6365	103705	110070
Died of disease	2712	197008	199790
In Confederate prisons	83	24783	24, 866
Accidents	142	3972	4114
Drowning	106	4838	4, 944
Sunstrokes	5	308	313
Murdered	37	483	520
Killed after capture	14	90	104
Suicide	26	365	391
Military executions		267	267
Executed by the enemy	4	60	64
Causes known, but unclassified	62	1972	2034
Cause not stated	28	12093	12121
Aggregate	9, 584	349, 944	359528

NOTE: The deaths from accidents were caused, principally, by the careless use of fire-arms, explosions of ammunition, and railway accidents; in the cavalry service, a large number of accidental deaths resulted from poor horsemanship.

Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

DEATHS IN CONFEDERATE ARMIES

James B. Fry, United States Provost Marshal-General, provides a report in 1865-1866 that includes a tabulation of Confederate losses. Fry’s report is compiled from the muster-rolls which are on file in the Bureau of Confederate Archives. This report is incomplete, as Confederate records can be, and often are, spotty. For example, in these records the Alabama rolls are mostly missing. Nonetheless, the numbers are worth noting. From General Fry’s report, the following tables were created by William E. Fox in his Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865:

	Killed
STATE	Officers	En. Men	Total
Virginia	266	5062	5328
North Carolina	677	13845	5522
South Carolina	360	8827	9187
Georgia	172	5381	5553
Florida	47	746	793
Alabama	5	538	552
Mississippi	52	5685	5807
Louisiana	70	2548	2618
Texas	28	1320	1348
Arkansas	54	2061	2165
Tennessee	99	2016	2115
Regular C. S. Army	35	972	507
Border States	92	1867	1959
Totals	2086	50868	52954

Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

	Died of Wounds
STATE	Officers	En. Men	Total
Virginia	200	2319	2519
North Carolina	330	4821	5151
South Carolina	257	3478	3735
Georgia	50	1579	1719
Florida	16	490	506
Alabama	9	181	190
Mississippi	75	2576	2651
Louisiana	42	826	868
Texas	13	528	541
Arkansas	27	888	915
Tennessee	49	825	874
Regular C. S. Army	27	441	468
Border States	61	672	733
Totals	1552	20324	21570

Source of table: William E. Fox, Regimental Losses in the American Civil War, 1861-1865

The Horror of the Civil War: Wounds, Dying, and Death

My book 501 Civil War Quotes and Notes features quotes made before, during, and after the Civil War. Each quote has an informative note to explain the circumstances and background of the quote. Learn Civil War history from the spoken words and writings of the military commanders, political leaders, the Billy Yanks and Johnny Rebs who fought in the battles, the abolitionists who strove for the freedom of the slaves, the descriptions of battles, and the citizens who suffered at home. Their voices tell us the who, what, where, when, and why of the Civil War. Available as a Kindle device e-book or as a paperback. Get 501 Civil War Quotes and Notes now!