Statistics From the Civil War
Below are statistics about the Civil War. 1
750,000
Total number of deaths from the Civil War 2
504
Deaths per day during the Civil War
2.5
Approximate percentage of the American population that died during the Civil War
7,000,000
Number of Americans lost if 2.5% of the American population died in a war today
8,064
Number of American soldiers who died in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (as of 3/13/13) 3
2,100,000
Number of Northerners mobilized to fight for the Union army
880,000
Number of Southerners mobilized to fight for the Confederacy
40+
Estimated percentage of Civil War dead who were never identified
66
Estimated percentage of dead African American Union soldiers who were never identified
2 out of 3
Number of Civil War deaths that occurred from disease rather than battle
68,162
Number of inquiries answered by the Missing Soldiers Office from 1865-1868
4,000,000
Number of enslaved persons in the United States in 1860
180,000
Number of African American soldiers that served in the Civil War
1 in 5
Average death rate for all Civil War soldiers
3:1
Ratio of Confederate deaths to Union deaths
9:1
Ratio of African American Civil War troops who died of disease to those that died on the battlefield, largely due to discriminatory medical care
100,000+
Number of Civil War Union corpses found in the South through a federal reinterment program from 1866-1869
303,356
Number of Union soldiers who were reinterred in 74 congressionally mandated national cemeteries by 1871
- 1Except where noted, figures adapted from "The Civil War by the Numbers," American Experience: Death and the Civil War companion website (accessed April 25, 2013).
- 2 Guy Gugliotta, “New Estimate Raises Civil War Death Toll,” New York Times, April 3, 2012.
- 33 Iraq and Afghanistan statistics from “U.S. and Coalition Casualties,” CNN.
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Facing History & Ourselves, “Statistics From the Civil War”, last updated March 14, 2016.