Casualty+Statistics

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**Intro**
The Civil war was the bloodiest war in US history. Each side of the war faced many casualties on the battlefield. Thousands were also lost in the hospitals, due to the technology and medicine not being up par, and amputations taking place whenever someone was shot in a limb. Disease swept camps and slowly bacame epidemics. Neither side showed any remorse in executing their prisoners. Casualties in single battles could be as high as 50,000 deaths. Each side of the war lost over 90,000 men on the battlefield, and in all each lost hundreds of thousands. All together, around 618,000 men were lost.

All Casualty Statistics (Cited in Bibliography)

**Disease and hospitalized soldier casualties**
Ultimately, in the Civil war more men were lost by disease and in the hospitals than on the battlefield. Instead of in current wars, the soldiers back then used minnie balls for ammunition. They used these little balls for distance and speed, but, unknown to them, they ended up causing a bulk of the casualties in this bloody war. The balls spun in the air, tearing holes in any body part they hit. This caused a straight death for most body parts, such as torso or head, but it was a different story for arms and legs. The round bullet would pierce skin, then drill directly through the bone if contact was made. This would leave heavy infection or disease. The limb would usually be amputated in an extremely painful way without any numbing drugs, and the soldiers would usually pick up Gangrene from the rotting flesh left behind.

Illnesses were common on the Civil war battlefields. These ranged from Intestinal disorders such as Typhoid fever, to tuberculosis and pneumonia. Younger soldiers caught and spread chickenpox and measles, fatal plagues at the time. A leading factor in the spread of these illnesses was the condition of army camps, where trash and food littered the ground, spreading bacteria. Each side of the war reported that about five in every thousand men went without getting some sort of illness in their times of duty. Typhoid fever caused almost one fourth of deaths off the battlefield. The deadly disease was spread by bad food or water consumed by soldiers.

Overall the Union lost a little less 200,000 more men in the war than the Confederacy. The North's disease rate seemed to be higher than the South's, and ended up causing around 200,000 deaths on their side. Aside from the 110,000 deaths caused on the battlefield, the North suffered loses from many causes, some more unexpected than others. After disease, deaths on the battlefield, and dying as a prisoner of war, the fourth leading cause of death in the Union was drowning. Nearly 5,000 men died by drowning. Although it would seem that members of the navy would be ample swimmers, Ironcald battles got intense, leaving men who suvived their boats demise out in the middle of the sea with no resources. There were also battles where soldiers would try to escape by boat, and fall off or sink the boat, leaving them to drown on the coast or be pulled down by a struggling comrade. Despite the war being a gory horrifying one, the suicide rate is seemly low. Over the entire war period, only 391 Union soldiers commited suicide. In all, the Union lost 664,928 men in the the Civil war.

The Union lost it's army commander, James MacPherson, in the Atlanta battle. They lost many division commanders, 14 to to be exact, in battles such as Chancellorsville, Antietam, and the Wilderness. They lost more commanders than the Confederacy throughout the war. The Union lost the most men in the battle of Gettysburg, over 23,000. It was nearly an even spread when comparing which side lost more men in each battle though. Most battles were pretty close in terms of casualties, and Stones River was actually only differentiated by around 300 deaths.

The confedercy suffered 483,026 casualties over the 4 year course of the Civil war. Although they lost almost 200,000 men less that the Union, thye lost more of a percentile of their soldiers, due to the Union greatly outnumbering them. Out of the 483,000 casualties, 164,000, more than a third, were lost because of disease and illness. This was the leading cause of death on the South's side, followed by deaths on the battlefield, then dying as prisoners of war, which claimed just over 30,000 lives. The Confederacy, like the Union, lost most of it's men in the battle of Gettysburg, 28,000 to be exact. They also lost many soldiers during The Seven Days, Chikamauga, and Chansellorsville. However, the only battles where they lose more men than the North were Gettysburg and Chikamauga, an impressive feat.

The Confederacy lost it's army commander, General Albert Johnston, in the battle of Shiloh. Jefferson Davis had considered him the best officer in the in the Confederacy before his early death at Shiloh. He was the highest ranking officer from the South to be killed during the war. The Confederacy also lost Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson during Chancellorsville, due to complications with a shot to the arm. Overall the Confederacy lost less commanders during the war, and stayed strong with leaders like Robert E. Lee.

**Deaths by battle**
The Civil war was filled with many gory battles with high death tolls. One, Gettysburg, even had more than 50,000 casualties. This was the most casualties for any battle of any war the United States has been in to date. Gettysburg did last for several days though. Shiloh, a one day battle, housed over 20,000 casualties, and set the record for the most casualties in one day. An early battle, Mill Springs, only suffered 800 hundred casualties, and, even though there were only 10,000 soldiers there to fight the battle, this may have been America's reason for believing this war wouldn't get too bad. They were proven wrong less than a month later, at Fort Donelson when there were almost 18,000 casualties, 15,000 coming from the South. This laid a blow on the South, and gave northerners even more of a reason to come fight, for they thought it would be an easy win.

It seemed that the Union lost less men in a majority of the battles, but in the ones where it lost more, it ended up losing a lot more. An example could be the wilderness, where the Union, led by Ulisses S. Grant, lost 7,000 more soldiers than the confederacy, or Cold Harbor, where the Union's casualties outnumbered the Confederacy's by over 9,000. This can also be reversed though, as the Union had it's fair share of blowouts.During the Vicksburg campaign, which had the highest difference in casualties of any Civil war battle, the North lost 4,550 men, while the South some how lost over 30,000. This battle was indeed a blowout on the Union's part.


 * **Battle** |||||| **Confederacy Casualties** |||| **Union Casualties** ||
 * Mill Springs |||||| 533 |||| 262 ||
 * Fort Donelson |||||| 15,067 |||| 2,832 ||
 * Shiloh |||||| 10,694 |||| 13,047 ||
 * 7 Days |||||| 20,614 |||| 15,849 ||
 * Second Manassas |||||| 9,197 |||| 16,054 ||
 * Antietam |||||| 13,724 |||| 12,410 ||
 * Fredericksburg |||||| 5,309 |||| 12,653 ||
 * Chancellorsville |||||| 12,764 |||| 16,792 ||
 * Gettysburg |||||| 28,063 |||| 23,049 ||
 * Chickamauga |||||| 18,454 |||| 16,179 ||
 * Wilderness |||||| 11,400 |||| 18,400 ||
 * Petersburg |||||| 2,970 |||| 8,150 ||
 * Nashville |||||| 4,462 |||| 3,061 ||

Causes of Death
Oddly, the leading cause of death in the Civil war was disease and illness. It ended up causing over 388,000 soldier deaths, more than deaths on the battlefield, which amounted to only 210,000. However, these weren't the only things that killed soldiers. They died from seemingly normal things such as suicide and sunstrokes, and some weird things, like drowning or murder.

Over 4,000 Union soldiers died of accidents. These may have been accidently stabbing themselves, or more likely shooting themselves or being shot by a fellow soldier. This was how officer "Stonewall" Jackson died. Another leading cause was drowning. In the madness of fleeing a battle by boat, men are bound to fall out or sink the boat. Soldiers that couldn't swim drowned, and some soldiers that could swim were pulled down by the ones that couldn't. Over 500 Union soldiers were murdered. It is unknown how or by who they were murdered.