The American Civil War is the conflict with the largest number of American military fatalities in history. In fact, the Civil War's death toll is comparable to all other major wars combined, the deadliest of which were the World Wars, which have a combined death toll of more than 520,000 American fatalities. The ongoing series of conflicts and interventions in the Middle East and North Africa, collectively referred to as the War on Terror in the west, has a combined death toll of more than 7,000 for the U.S. military since 2001. Other records In terms of the number of deaths per day, the American Civil War is still at the top, with an average of 425 deaths per day, while the First and Second World Wars have averages of roughly 100 and 200 fatalities per day respectively. Technically, the costliest battle in U.S. military history was the Battle of Elsenborn Ridge, which was a part of the Battle of the Bulge in the Second World War, and saw upwards of 5,000 deaths over 10 days. However, the Battle of Gettysburg had more military fatalities of American soldiers, with almost 3,200 Union deaths and over 3,900 Confederate deaths, giving a combined total of more than 7,000. The Battle of Antietam is viewed as the bloodiest day in American military history, with over 3,600 combined fatalities and almost 23,000 total casualties on September 17, 1862. Revised Civil War figures For more than a century, the total death toll of the American Civil War was generally accepted to be around 620,000, a number which was first proposed by Union historians William F. Fox and Thomas L. Livermore in 1888. This number was calculated by using enlistment figures, battle reports, and census data, however many prominent historians since then have thought the number should be higher. In 2011, historian J. David Hacker conducted further investigations and claimed that the number was closer to 750,000 (and possibly as high as 850,000). While many Civil War historians agree that this is possible, and even likely, obtaining consistently accurate figures has proven to be impossible until now; both sides were poor at keeping detailed records throughout the war, and much of the Confederacy's records were lost by the war's end. Many Confederate widows also did not register their husbands death with the authorities, as they would have then been ineligible for benefits.

The Korean War was an international military conflict which lasted from June 1950 until July 1953, which pitted the communist forces of North Korea, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China against South Korea and a U.S.-led UN force comprised of troops from over 20 additional countries. The war was the United States' first major military engagement of the Cold War, the period of rivalry and heightened tension between the world's two superpowers, the U.S. and Soviet Union. While the war was one of the deadliest in the Cold War and the 20th century in general, it resulted in a stalemate between the North and South, with the boundary between the two countries remaining to this day at the 38th parallel line. The two countries remain technically at war to the present day, as the South's dictator, Syngman Rhee, refused to sign the peace agreement which in practice ended the fighting in the war.

U.S. military deaths in Korea

The majority of U.S. military fatalities during the Korean War were battle deaths (63 percent), with a smaller number of deaths while missing (12 percent), deaths while captured (eight percent), or deaths from battle wounds (seven percent). In addition, around three percent of deaths were from airplane crashes which were not caused by hostile forces, with another seven percent dying of other causes unrelated to battle. In total around 36,000 U.S. military servicemembers were killed in Korea, out of a total of around 40,000 deaths for the UN forces combined. The war was the United States' second deadliest conflict of the Cold War, as well as its fifth deadliest ever, after the Vietnam War, World War I, World War II, and the Civil War.

As of March 2021, 11 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq in 2020. This is a decrease from a peak of 904 casualties in 2007.

Additional information on fatalities in the Iraq War

The invasion of Iraq by the United States and coalition forces in March 2003 saw the beginning of the Iraq War, a conflict that would continue beyond the end of the decade. Fatalities of American forces were highest in the first five years of conflict as soldiers grappled with the Al Qaeda as well as civil war between those groups seeking to fill the power vacuum left by the removal of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Casualties progressively decreased from 2008, in part due to attempts by Barack Obama who made the removal of troops from Iraq a central promise of this successful campaign to succeed George W. Bush. In 2013, the majority of Americans considered sending troops to fight in Iraq to be a mistake.

While the number of civilian deaths in the Iraq War was much higher, the trend of numbers decreasing from 2008 onward was in line with the trend for American solider losses. However, civilian deaths rose again from 2013 onward as Iraq returned to heavy conflict with Islamic State.

The high number of American fatalities in the first five years of the Iraq War could be seen as influencing the reluctance of the United States to commit ground troop support in the battle against Islamic State when the issue was discussed in 2015. Not only is the loss of life a tragedy in itself, but the political discourse in the United States surrounding the involvement of their troops in Middle Eastern conflicts has made further involvement unattractive to elected officials. However calls for further ground support are likely to continue as Iraq remained in the top five countries with the most terrorist attacks as of 2019.

Of the ten deadliest battles of the American Civil War, the Battle of Gettysburg in early July, 1863, was by far the most devastating battle of the war, claiming over 51 thousand casualties, of which 7 thousand were battle deaths. The Battles of Shiloh, Bull Run (Second), Antietam, Stones River and Chancellorsville all have very similar casualty counts, between 22.5 and 24 thousand casualties each, although it should be noted that the Battle of Antietam took place in a single day, and with 22,717 casualties it is the bloodiest day in U.S. history. The Battles of Chickamauga, the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, all had approximately 30 to 35 thousand casualties each, whereas the Siege of Vicksburg is the only entry on this list with less than 20 thousand casualties.

Between 2003 and 2024, the annual number of civilian deaths due to the Iraq war has fluctuated significantly. As of July, there were 210 deaths in 2024. Civilian Deaths in the Iraq WarCivilian casualties are the deaths of non-military individuals as a result of military operations. The number of documented civilian deaths in the Iraq war peaked in 2006 at 29,526 casualties. Since then, the number had fallen to 4,162 casualties documented in the year 2011, and the number of casualties has been decreasing again since 2014. Due to the nature of the Iraq war and of war reporting, data cannot be considered exact. Many civilian deaths that occurred during the war in Iraq may remain unaccounted for. The Iraq war was launched in March 2003 upon the invasion of Iraq by U.S. forces. Eight years later, in December 2011, the U.S. formally declared an end to the Iraq war. From the start of the war in 2003 until September 30, 2015, it is estimated that the United States spent a total of over 819 billion US dollars on war costs in Iraq. This number includes funding requested by the President and appropriated by Congress, and accounts for both military and non-military spending. Spending was highest in 2008, that year over 142 billion US dollars were spent in Iraq by the United States government. As of 2022, around 6,561 U.S. active-duty military personnel were deployed in North Africa, the Near East, and South Asia. The number of US American soldiers killed in Iraq peaked in 2007 with just over nine hundred causalities. In the same year, there were over 25,000 civilian deaths in Iraq.

Throughout the period in which the United States was in an armed conflict with the Communist-led government and insurgency in Vietnam (referred to as the "Vietnam War" in the U.S. and the "Resistance War against the United States" in Vietnam), around 40 percent of the 8.7 million U.S. military service personnel were stationed in South-East Asia. Of these personnel in the theatre of war, around two percent were killed during the conflict.

This war was part of the wider Cold War of the second half of the 20th century, where the rivalry between the superpowers of the United States and Soviet Union dominated the post-World War II era. During this period the U.S. stationed much of its remaining five million service personnel outside of active conflict zones, especially in strategically important countries such as (West) Germany, South Korea, and Japan, in addition to those stationed at home.

The number of soldiers killed in Afghanistan in 2021 amounted to 13 from the Western coalition, as of October 2021. Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) is a large military operation, being carried out within the framework of the War on Terror.

Afghanistan War

As mentioned above, Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, which began in October 7, 2001, caused the deaths of many soldiers during the period from 2001 to 2020. Operation Enduring Freedom is an American term for the Afghanistan War, used by the U.S. government.

Operation Enduring Freedom was a response to the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 and the beginning of the Global War on Terrorism.

Although it has been nearly 20 years since the Americans started the Global War on Terror, there are still many terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. About 1,750 terrorist attacks were counted in the country 2019.

Due to terrorism in Afghanistan, the number of deaths has increased from 1,952 killed people in 2007 up to 5,312 killed people in 2015 by terrorists. In 2019, the number stood at 8,681.

Estimates for the total death count of the Second World War generally range somewhere between 70 and 85 million people. The Soviet Union suffered the highest number of fatalities of any single nation, with estimates mostly falling between 22 and 27 million deaths. China then suffered the second greatest, at around 20 million, although these figures are less certain and often overlap with the Chinese Civil War. Over 80 percent of all deaths were of those from Allied countries, and the majority of these were civilians. In contrast, 15 to 20 percent were among the Axis powers, and the majority of these were military deaths, as shown in the death ratios of Germany and Japan. Civilian deaths and atrocities It is believed that 60 to 67 percent of all deaths were civilian fatalities, largely resulting from war-related famine or disease, and war crimes or atrocities. Systematic genocide, extermination campaigns, and forced labor, particularly by the Germans, Japanese, and Soviets, led to the deaths of millions. In this regard, Nazi activities alone resulted in 17 million deaths, including six million Jews in what is now known as The Holocaust. Not only was the scale of the conflict larger than any that had come before, but the nature of and reasoning behind this loss make the Second World War stand out as one of the most devastating and cruelest conflicts in history. Problems with these statistics Although the war is considered by many to be the defining event of the 20th century, exact figures for death tolls have proven impossible to determine, for a variety of reasons. Countries such as the U.S. have fairly consistent estimates due to preserved military records and comparatively few civilian casualties, although figures still vary by source. For most of Europe, records are less accurate. Border fluctuations and the upheaval of the interwar period mean that pre-war records were already poor or non-existent for many regions. The rapid and chaotic nature of the war then meant that deaths could not be accurately recorded at the time, and mass displacement or forced relocation resulted in the deaths of many civilians outside of their homeland, which makes country-specific figures more difficult to find. Early estimates of the war’s fatalities were also taken at face value and formed the basis of many historical works; these were often very inaccurate, but the validity of the source means that the figures continue to be cited today, despite contrary evidence.

In comparison to Europe, estimate ranges are often greater across Asia, where populations were larger but pre-war data was in short supply. Many of the Asian countries with high death tolls were European colonies, and the actions of authorities in the metropoles, such as the diversion of resources from Asia to Europe, led to millions of deaths through famine and disease. Additionally, over one million African soldiers were drafted into Europe’s armies during the war, yet individual statistics are unavailable for most of these colonies or successor states (notably Algeria and Libya). Thousands of Asian and African military deaths went unrecorded or are included with European or Japanese figures, and there are no reliable figures for deaths of millions from countries across North Africa or East Asia. Additionally, many concentration camp records were destroyed, and such records in Africa and Asia were even sparser than in Europe. While the Second World War is one of the most studied academic topics of the past century, it is unlikely that we will ever have a clear number for the lives lost in the conflict.

The United States military has a long history of ethnic minorities serving in its ranks, with black Americans having served as far back as the Revolutionary War. The Vietnam War took place during a period of changing race relations in the United States, with the Civil Rights Movement reaching its peak in the mid-1960s, and this too was reflected in the military. The Vietnam War was the first major conflict in which black and white troops were not formally segregated, however, discrimination did still occur with black soldiers reporting being subject to overt racism, being unjustly punished, and having fewer promotion opportunities than their white counterparts.

In the early phases of the war, black casualty rates were much higher than for other races and ethnicities, with some reports showing that black soldiers accounted for 25 percent of the casualties recorded in 1965. This declined substantially as the war progressed, however, the proportion of black service personnel among those fallen during the war was still disproportionately high, as black personnel comprised only 11 percent of the military during this era. A smaller number of other ethnic minorities were killed during the war, comprising two percent of the total.

The United States military entered the Korean War in July 1950 and fought on the side of South Korea against the communist forces of North Korea and the People's Republic of China until August 1953. In total, the United States military would suffer almost 37,000 deaths through hostilities. Of these, servicemembers in the Army made up the vast majority of deaths (82.19 percent), with most of these being the result of soldiers being killed in action. A smaller number of marines and navy servicemembers were killed in Korea, with the majority also having been killed in action for these groups. For the United States Air Force, the composition of total deaths is quite different, as the majority of pilots killed during the conflict were declared dead after going missing in action. This likely reflects the fact that when an airplane was shot from the sky in battle, the remains of the pilots are not recoverable.

This statistic shows the fatalities of the United States' military in Iraq and Afghanistan as of October 1 2021, by state. As of October 1, 2021, the United States had lost a total of 7,054 soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, with 759 coming from California.

The surprise Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941, marked the beginning of the United States' involvement in the Second World War. As a result of the attack, a total of 2,403 Americans were killed, and the vast majority of these were from the U.S. Navy. Almost half of all American deaths on the day came were those on the U.S.S. Arizona, where 1,177 servicemen were killed as the ship was sunk. In contrast, just 129 Japanese soldiers were killed in the attack.

The First World War saw the mobilization of more than 65 million soldiers, and the deaths of almost 15 million soldiers and civilians combined. Approximately 8.8 million of these deaths were of military personnel, while six million civilians died as a direct result of the war; mostly through hunger, disease and genocide. The German army suffered the highest number of military losses, totaling at more than two million men. Turkey had the highest civilian death count, largely due to the mass extermination of Armenians, as well as Greeks and Assyrians. Varying estimates suggest that Russia may have suffered the highest number of military and total fatalities in the First World War. However, this is complicated by the subsequent Russian Civil War and Russia's total specific to the First World War remains unclear to this day.

Proportional deaths In 1914, Central and Eastern Europe was largely divided between the empires of Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia, while the smaller Balkan states had only emerged in prior decades with the decline of the Ottoman Empire. For these reasons, the major powers in the east were able to mobilize millions of men from across their territories, as Britain and France did with their own overseas colonies, and were able to utilize their superior manpower to rotate and replace soldiers, whereas smaller nations did not have this luxury. For example, total military losses for Romania and Serbia are around 12 percent of Germany's total military losses; however, as a share of their total mobilized forces these countries lost roughly 33 percent of their armies, compared to Germany's 15 percent mortality rate. The average mortality rate of all deployed soldiers in the war was around 14 percent.

Unclarity in the totals Despite ending over a century ago, the total number of deaths resulting from the First World War remains unclear. The impact of the Influenza pandemic of 1918, as well as various classifications of when or why fatalities occurred, has resulted in varying totals with differences ranging in the millions. Parallel conflicts, particularly the Russian Civil War, have also made it extremely difficult to define which conflicts the fatalities should be attributed to. Since 2012, the totals given by Hirschfeld et al in Brill's Encyclopedia of the First World War have been viewed by many in the historical community as the most reliable figures on the subject.

It is estimated that the Second World War was responsible for the deaths of approximately 3.76 percent of the world's population between 1939 and 1945. In 2022, where the world's population reached eight billion, this would be equal to the death of around 300 million people.

The region that experienced the largest loss of life relative to its population was the South Seas Mandate - these were former-German territories given to the Empire of Japan through the Treaty of Versailles following WWI, and they make up much of the present-day countries of the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, the Northern Mariana Islands (U.S. territory), and Palau. Due to the location and strategic importance of these islands, they were used by the Japanese as launching pads for their attacks on Pearl Harbor and in the South Pacific, while they were also taken as part of the Allies' island-hopping strategy in their counteroffensive against Japan. This came at a heavy cost for the local populations, a large share of whom were Japanese settlers who had moved there in the 1920s and 1930s. Exact figures for both pre-war populations and wartime losses fluctuate by source, however civilian losses in these islands were extremely high as the Japanese defenses resorted to more extreme measures in the war's final phase.

The Battle of Gettysburg, at the beginning of July 1863, was the largest and costliest battle of the American Civil War, and is often regarded as the turning point in the war. Confederate General Robert E. Lee sought to capitalize on his victories earlier in the year, such as the Battle of Chancellorsville, by launching his second invasion of the northern states. He did this in order to alleviate the pressure on the Virginia farmland, which had been ravaged by the preceding campaigns, and also in an attempt to force the Union into negotiations to end the war. In June, General Lee's forces marched through Virginia, into Pennsylvania, and were pursued by Union forces led by Major General Joseph Hooker, and later Maj. Gen. George G. Meade. The Battle of Gettysburg The armies met near the town of Gettysburg, PA, on the morning of July 1. In the first day of fighting, the Confederates won control of much of the area surrounding the town, while the Union held the lands to the south. On the second day, reinforcements arrived on both sides, and while the Confederate forces tried flanking the entrenched and heavily defended Union forces, they had limited success. At 1pm on the third day of battle, General Lee launched what was probably the largest artillery bombardment of the entire war, and two hours later he ordered Pickett's Charge, which saw roughly 12,500 Confederate troops charge the Union forces entrenched on Cemetery Ridge. The bombardment had little effect on the Union defenses, and the oncoming soldiers suffered heavy casualties before being forced to retreat, marking an end to the battle and a victory for the Union. Gettysburg has been described as the bloodiest battle of the war, as, not only were the casualties higher than any other battle, but the depletion of ammunition stocks led to much close-quarters, hand-to-hand combat on the final day. Legacy Over 165,000 men took part in the Battle of Gettysburg, with roughly one third becoming casualties. More than 7,000 men died in the fighting, and a further 33,000 were wounded. The battle also saw the deaths of six Confederate and five Union generals, more than any other battle in the war. Although the war would not end for another two years, this battle is seen by many as the turning point, and as the closest that the Confederacy came to accomplishing their goal of complete cessation from the Union. Prior to this, the Confederacy had won more decisive battles than the Union, but after Gettysburg this shifted in favor of the Union, who would go on to win the war in 1865. Four months after the battle, President Lincoln gave his famous Gettysburg Address, which paid tribute to the men who fell in the battle, and has gone on to become one of the most famous speeches in American history.

The Korean War began on June 25, 1950, and ended on July 27, 1953, with an armistice. The “War of June 25” started with an invasion by North Korea and claimed around 1.9 million military casualties, including 815 thousand fatalities. This does not even consider the millions of civilians killed or forced to flee from their homes. Throughout the war, North Korea gained control of almost all of South Korea before South Korean and United Nations forces pushed north to regain control. Nearly all regions and people were affected at some point, with massive destruction everywhere. The unfinished warThe Korean War was the largest international war following the Second World War and one of the few conflicts during the Cold War. The United Nations forces, largely composed of American troops, fought alongside South Korea, while Chinese and Soviet troops supported North Korea. The Korean War unofficially ended with an armistice. This was to be followed by a formal treaty to end the war, but this never happened. Officially, North and South Korea are still at war today. Divided familiesThe Korean War resulted in millions of dead, missing, abducted, and refugee civilians. Over a million North Koreans fled south of the border. The war tore many families apart. Following the inter-Korean summit in 2000, the two governments arranged for family reunions in North Korea. North Korea would not permit the people to leave, so the family members in the south went to meet them. From 2000 to 2023, about 21 reunions have taken place in North Korea. Most of the family members in South Korea are now in their 70s to 90s. Although there is substantial agreement on the need to continue these reunions before the separate families age and pass away, this has not always been possible due to tensions between the two Koreas.

The Tet Offensive was a military operation undertaken by the forces of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong insurgency during the Lunar New Year festival (Tet) in early 1968. The offensive was a surprise attack which targeted the main population centers throughout South Vietnam, with towns, cities, and military bases being seized by communist forces. While initially successful in taking control of areas of strategic importance, the communist forces were not able to hold these positions for more than a couple of days. As the U.S. and South Vietnamese forces re-grouped to fight off the attack, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong armies suffered heavy losses.

Outcome of the offensive

While the number of wounded among the communist forces is unknown, at least 60,000 of their soldiers were killed during the three and a half weeks of the offensive. The U.S. and South Vietnamese forces suffered considerably fewer losses, while the high number of civilian casualties damaged support for the communists among the civilian population of South Vietnam. The decisive repulsion of the attack did little to win support for the war in the United States, as the scale of the offensive was seen as delegitimizing claims that a U.S. victory in the conflict was near at hand. Despite some in the U.S. military command, such as General Westmoreland, wanting to send additional troops in order to strike a decisive blow against the communists, U.S. public opinion had turned decisively against the war effort and a process of 'vietnamization' of the conflict was begun under President Johnson.

The Battle of the Wilderness was the first encounter of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and General Robert E. Lee's forces, during Grant's Overland Campaign in May and June 1864 during the American Civil War. This campaign took place over eight weeks in Virginia, as Grant's union troops pushed the Confederate forces further back through Virginia, culminating in the Sieges of Richmond and Petersburg. Although the Union sustained heavier casualties than the Confederacy, they emerged victorious from the campaign, as they had inflicted a higher proportion of casualties to the South. It was during this point of the war where the Union's superior numbers proved instrumental in determining the outcome of the war. The Wilderness The Battle of the Wilderness is so named as it reflects the conditions in which the battle was fought, as it took places in the dense forests of Virginia, near Spotsylvania, between May 5 and 7, 1864. The fighting took place in sporadic encounters and skirmishes, with different corps from each army intercepting one another as they navigated their way through the forest. The outcome of the battle is deemed inconclusive, with both sides suffering heavy casualties, while achieving some of their primary goals. Grant was waging a war of attrition (where the aim is to defeat one's enemy by wearing down their numbers and resources) against Lee, and was successful in taking out a large portion of his forces while slowing his retreat. In contrast, Lee's goal was to outmanoeuvre the bulk of his army to a more favorable position in order to regroup and hold out for reinforcements, with which he had some success. Aftermath The location of the battle was a major influence in the outcome, as the density of the trees and the limited lighting caused confusion among the troops and allowed more organized regiments to ambush their enemies. In total, an estimated 163 thousand men took place in the battle, with approximately thirty thousand becoming casualties. Although the Union sustained roughly seven thousand more casualties than the Confederacy, as mentioned above, their strength in numbers and their ability to replace lost soldiers was the key to their overall success. This battle was immediately followed by the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, which lasted from May 8 to 21, 1864.

The Battle of Antietam (also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg) is the single bloodiest day in the United States' military history, with almost 23,000 total casualties, which included over 3,600 fatalities. The battle began at dawn on September 17, 1862, as General Robert E. Lee's Confederate army were attacked by Major General George B. McClellan near Antietam Creek, Maryland. While the Union had almost double the Confederacy's numbers, McClellan did not commit his full force, and did not capitalize and push his attack any time he broke Lee's defensive line. This meant that Lee's men were able to hold off the Union army until reinforcements arrived in the evening and drove the battered Union army back, thus ending the battle. Although some skirmishes took place during the day before and after the 17th, they pale in comparison to the violence and losses suffered on that day.

The United States military mounted an amphibious invasion of Korea at the port of Inchon on September 15, 1950. The invasion was part of a wider offensive during the first year of the Korean War, in which the U.S., South Korean, and UN forces looked to break out from the small area of South Korea around the port of Pusan, in which their forces had been trapped by the advancing North Korean armies. General MacArthur, the commanding general of the U.S. and UN forces decided that an amphibious landing of U.S. troops was needed in order to split North Korean forces along two fronts and to start an offensive to retake the South Korean capital, Seoul. The Inchon Invasion shifts the balance of power The attack of Inchon (now spelled Incheon), a port city less than 50 kilometers from Seoul, took the North Korean forces largely by surprise, with the Americans making rapid advances and taking the city by September 19. The invasion flipped the balance of power in the war, with the North Koreans suddenly needing to split their forces in order to try to defend Seoul. On the 16th of September the U.S. Eighth Army began its breakout from the Pusan Perimeter, linking up with the invasion force in the North of the country by the end of the month. This assault marked the beginning of a phase of U.S. and UN dominance in the war, which would only be ended by the entry of Chinese troops into the war in late October.