Civil War Death Toll

American History

Deaths in American Wars

The latest death toll of American troops in Iraq (as of June 12, 2005), was 1,701. That is a very tiny number in comparison with the total deaths from the Civil War (633,000), WWII (407,000), WWI (117,000) or even the Vietnam (58,000) and Korean (33,500) wars. But though the small number of deaths in the American war on Iraq pales in comparison to the Civil War and others, it should be noted that many deaths were expected in the Civil War, and the Iraq war was not a war which the U.S. Government expected to see many deaths at all. In fact, most of the fatalities in Iraq occurred after the President of the United States, in May, 2003, flew onto the landing strip of an aircraft carrier, and under a huge sign reading, "Mission Accomplished," declared major hostilities over with. The "new war" in Iraq that is going on now was clearly not expected, and is a hard war for American troops to fight, because it is perpetrated in the main by insurgent extremist Islamic suicide fighters; they drive up to Americans in innocent-looking vehicles with powerful bombs ready to go off and take lives by pushing a button.

As to the reason for so many deaths in the Civil War, the tactics were "antiquated," according to reference material provided for this paper. Thousands of lives were lost in a single day; soldiers in infantry units marched shoulder to shoulder towards enemy lines, and with the "spiral grooves" in the bore of the advanced rifles in the hands of the defenders, the tightly stacked rows and rows of infantry troops were "sitting ducks" to "entrenched defensive forces" shooting those advanced weapons. Further, medical resources were scarce and they did not have the ability to apply first aid to badly wounded soldiers. Men lay wounded and still alive on battlefields for hours, and days, with no help available. Infection and "deadly diseases" were commonplace. Also, many soldiers died in prisons during the Civil War, including 30,000 Union soldiers who died in Confederate prisons, and around 26,000 Confederate troops died in Union prisons.