The Civil War is the deadliest conflict in American history, resulting in the loss of approximately 620,000 soldiers, including an unspecified number of women, who fought for both the Union and the Confederacy. This figure accounts for roughly 2% of the national population at the time. In all, the war resulted in a total of 1.5 million casualties that included deaths, injuries, illnesses, imprisonments, and missing persons.
There were 37 states at the time of the civil war and casualties were suffered by every states. Some states sustained more devastating losses than others.
24/7 Tempo collected death toll data from the American Battlefield Trust and historical records by William F. Fox and Frederick H. Dyer, both compiled shortly after the Civil War, to identify the states with the highest number of casualties.
When Fox and Dyer began their research, many death records had already been lost, leading many historians to claim that Civil War fatalities are substantially underestimated. As a result, we opted to use the highest recorded death toll for each state. Information regarding the allegiance of each state during the conflict was also sourced from the American Battlefield Trust.
The Civil War marked a period where new military advancements, improved logistics, and outdated tactical strategies came together, leading to unprecedented levels of casualties in American history. The majority of casualties and deaths were due to non-combat-related diseases, with a ratio of five deaths from illness for every three soldiers killed in battle. The primitive state of Civil War medical care resulted in many avoidable fatalities from wounds and illnesses.
The majority of the Civil War battles occurred in the Southern states, despite Union forces suffering higher casualties overall. Confederate fatalities were highest in Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, and South Carolina. In contrast, New York, Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, endured the greatest losses among Northern states and collectively suffered the most fatalities of all states involved.
In at least 10 battles, the number of casualties exceeded 19,000. The Battle of Gettysburg alone saw more American soldiers killed or wounded than the combined toll of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Will full conscription in the South, the war's impact was felt in almost every household, with an estimated one in three Southern households experiencing the loss of at least one family member. (These are 25 horrifying Civil War images.)
