Death Tolls for the Man-made Megadeaths of the 20th Century

Worst American This or That

List of Recurring Sources

Alphabetical Index

American war dead
Bloodiest battle
Deadliest day
Indian Wars
Civilians
Western Hemisphere
Worst disasters



American War Dead:

When American fatalities in Iraq passed a thousand on 7 Sept. 2004, there was the inevitable comparison of this with other wars. The news media generally drew their numbers from the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, but I have some small disagreements with those. Among them:

With that in mind, I decided to make my own list (although I doubt that anyone is going to accept my numbers over the VA's)

War [fn.5]
[click the name for sources]
Date Killed in Battle
or Died of Wounds
Died of Disease,
Accident, etc.
Total American Deaths
[fn.1]
Legal Authority
[fn.3]
World War II 1941-45 291,557 113,842 405,399 Formal declaration
Civil War (US+CS) 1861-65 204,070
[US:_110,070]
[CS:_94,000]
414,152
[US:_250,152]
[CS:_164,000]
618,222
[US:_360,222]
[CS:_258,000]
USA:_Executive
CSA:_Revolutionary
World War I 1917-18 53,402 63,114 116,516 Formal declaration
Vietnam War 1965-73 47,378 10,799 58,177 Executive
Korean War 1950-53 33,741 2,827 36,568 Executive
Revolutionary War 1775-83 Patriot: 6,824
Loyalist: 1,700
Patriot: 18,500 Patriot: 25,324
Loyalist: 7,000
Patriot: Revolutionary
Loyalist: Royal
Iraq War 2003-
(as of Aug. 21, 2011)
3,480 928 4,408 [fn.7] Executive
Indian Wars 1775-1891 3,000 ± [fn.4] 1,100 ± 4,100 ± Executive
War of 1812 1812-15 2,260 17,205 19,465 Formal declaration
Mexican War 1846-48 1,733 11,550 13,283 Formal declaration
Afghanistan 2001-
(as of Aug. 21, 2011)
1,360 273 1,633 [fn.2] Executive
Philippine Insurgency 1899-1902 1,018 3,216 4,234 Executive
Spanish Civil War
(Abraham Lincoln Battalion)
1936-39 900 Volunteers
Texas War of Independence 1835-36 704 Revolutionary
Spanish-American War 1898 385 2,061 2,446 Formal declaration
Nicaragua (Walker's Expedition) 1856-57 1,000 Filibuster
Russian Civil War 1918-20 304 268 572 Executive
Lebanon 1982-84 273 273 Executive
Gulf War 1990-91 148 235 383 Executive
Mexican expeditions 1914-17 67 67 Executive
War against Terrorism 2001- 66 82 148 [fn.6] Executive
Nicaragua 1926-33 47 89 136 Executive

FN1: American -- "American" is not as clearly definable as you'd think. Obviously, anyone fighting under the authority of the US government counts, but should we include the Confederates? And if the Confederates count, shouldn't the Tories and Texans? Once this happens, we've shifted from a legal definition of American to an ethnic definition, and we have to be fair about including situations where substantial numbers of ethnic Americans fought and died outside the legal structure of the US government. I've italicized those.

FN2: Afghanistan only, according to Defense Link.

FN3: Legal Authority - The main reason I've bothered with this category is that people sometimes try to trim the list of American wars by arbitrarily deciding that some are more "official" than others, and therefore Russia, for example, wouldn't count. My point here is that, yes, there are legal differences between wars, but that you shouldn't include some undeclared wars (e.g. Gulf War) while ignoring others (e.g. Lebanon). Although only a handful of American wars have been launched by a formal diplomatic declaration of war, all have had at least the tacit support of Congress. Some have seen specific resolutions authorizing the Executive Branch to use force as it sees fit. Sometimes Americans have fought under governments established by revolution, which is a legal can of worms.

FN4: Indian Wars - for now, I'm lumping all these together, but ideally, each should be counted separately. For details and sources, see below.

FN5: War Names - I've tried to avoid the cute, designer names that have been attached to some of these wars, like Desert Storm and the Polar Bear Expedition, in favor of more descriptive names.

FN6: War against Terrorism - Deaths in "Operation Enduring Freedom" (Defense Link) outside the Afghanistan, plus the 22 soldiers and 33 sailors killed at the Pentagon, Sept. 11, 2001 (CNN). It doesn't include the civilians killed on 9/11.

FN7: According to Defense Link.


Bloodiest War in American History:

Not the Civil War -- World War Two.

American Deaths Killed in Battle or Died of Wounds Died of Disease, Accident, etc. Total
Civil War (US+CS) 204,070 414,152 618,222
World War II 291,557 113,842 405,399

Although more American died in the Civil War, more Americans were killed in WW2. It's a pedantic technicality perhaps, but the Civil War was America's deadliest war, World War II its bloodiest.


US Army deaths in Indian Wars

The official statistics of US deaths from the US Government seem to cover only the later years and are based on these sources:

Sources which I am using for my recalculation:

  1. US Army CMH: Named Campaigns - Indian Wars
  2. Encyclopedia of North American Indians
  3. Chronological List of Actions, &C., with Indians From January 15, 1837 to January, 1891 (as summarized above)
  4. Clodfelter, Warfare and Armed Conflict


Campaign Dates US Killed Source
Ohio Valley, all Indian wars late 17th Century-1825 12,002 whites KiA or DoWd D
Miami January 1790-August 1795

St. Clair lost 637 killed

>1,000 US regulars, militia, volunteers k. 1790-95

A

D

Tippecanoe 21 September-18 November 1811 Harrison lost 39 killed and missing A
Creeks 27 July 1813-9 August 1814 and February 1836-July 1837 700 Americans (soldiers + civ.) k. D
Seminoles

20 November 1817 - 31 October 1818

28 December 1835 - 14 August 1842

nearly 1,500 killed.

1466 US Army d. incl 328 KIA

A.

D.

15 December 1855 - May 1858

Black Hawk 26 April-30 September 1832
Total 15 Jan. 1837-Jan. 1891 1,263 officers and men killed C
Oregon 1847-1860 1,130 whites k. (sold+civ.) D
Yakima War 1855-56 200 whites k. (mostly civilians) D
Santee Sioux 1862 400 white citizens k. in first days. Total whites: 644 civilians + 113 soldiers D
Bozeman Trail War (Red Cloud's War) December 1866 killed eighty soldiers under Capt. Fetterman B
Comanches 1867-1875
Modocs 1872-1873 10 killed + some 80 white men were killed During the course of the siege A.
Apaches 1873 and 1885-1886
Little Big Horn 1876-1877 7th Cavalry lost 12 officers, 247 enlisted men, 5 civilians, and 3 Indian scouts killed A
Nez Perces 1877
Bannocks 1878
Cheyennes 1878-1879
Utes September 1879-November 1880
Pine Ridge November 1890-January 1891
TOTAL ca. 2,967 soldiers killed + 1,138 of disease = 4,105


American Civilians Killed by War

War Civilian Deaths Notes
Revolutionary War
wars18c.htm#AmRev
smallpox spread by armies 6,186
camp fever among refugee slaves 23,500
frontier atrocities 568
TOTAL 30,254
Fenn, Pox Americana
Fenn/T.Jefferson
Osborn: Wild Frontier
sum
War of 1812 1,325 frontier atrocities (Osborn: Wild Frontier)
Civil War
wars19c.htm#ACW
56,000
50,000
75,000
Ransom, One Kind of Freedom (est. Afr.Ams.)
McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, p.619 (est. total)
White, Great Big Book of Horrible Things, p.299 (est. total)
World War One 128 Americans on the Lusitania
World War Two 9,300 U.S. Merchant Marine
International Terrorism
9/11 (minus military and foreign nationals) 2,550
1983 Beirut (17), 1988 Pan Am 103 (189), 1993 WTC (6), 1998 Embassies (11) 223
TOTAL 2,773


Deadliest Wars in the Western Hemisphere:

  1. Mexican Revolution (1910-20): 1,000,000 dead
  2. War of the Triple Alliance (Paraguay: 1864-70): 800,000
  3. American Civil War (USA: 1861-65): 650,000
  4. Mexican War of Independence (1810-21): 500,000
  5. Haitian Revolt (1791-1803): 350,000
  6. Cuban Revolution (1895-98): 300,000

Bloodiest Battle in the Western Hemisphere:

That would probably be the Battle of Celaya, 1915, in the Mexican Revolution, in which some 10,000 died. That beats the 7,000 killed at Gettysburg (see below). On the other hand, the Spanish Conquest of Tenochtitlan in 1520 is said to have killed 100,000-200,000 Aztecs in battle so, if true (big if), that would take the title.


Bloodiest Battle in American History:

That depends. You probably mean the most Americans killed in a single battle, which would be the 26,277 killed in the Battle of Meuse-Argonne. But the "bloodiest battle in US history" could also mean the most people of all nationalities killed in a battle involving a major commitment of American troops, which would be the 150,000 Americans and Japanese killed at Okinawa.

Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle of the Civil War, is usually claimed to have killed 3,155 Union and 3,903 Confederate troops, for a total of 7,058.


Deadliest Days in American History:

  1. Sept. 8-9, 1900, Galveston Hurricane [Deadliest 24 hours in US history: 8,000]
  2. Sept. 17, 1862, Battle of Antietam [Bloodiest calendar day on American soil, probably 4,300 killed that day.]
  3. September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks: 2,992, incl. foreign nationals and hijackers, at all 3 sites.
  4. April 18-21, 1906, San Francisco Earthquake and Fire: 2,500+ on the day of the earthquake.
  5. September 16, 1928, Lake Okeechobee Hurricane: 2,500
  6. Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor: 2,403
  7. May 3, 1863, Battle of Chancellorsville, busiest day of the battle: 2,358
  8. July 1- 3, 1863, Battle of Gettysburg, per day 2,353±
  9. May 31, 1889, Johnstown Flood: 2,209
  10. Sept 19-20, 1863, Battle of Chickamauga: per day 1,984±
  11. Nov. 30, 1864, Battle of Franklin: 1,939 [2nd bloodiest single-day battle of the Civil War.]
  12. Dec. 13, 1862, Battle of Fredericksburg: 1,879
  13. April 27, 1865, wreck of the Sultana: 1,547
  14. Aug 27-28, 1893, Sea Islands Hurricane: 1,500±
  15. Dec. 31, 1862-Jan. 1, 1863, Battle of Murfreesboro: per day 1,485±
  16. June 6, 1944, D-Day: 1,465
  17. Oct. 8, 1862, Battle of Perryville: 1,355
  18. June 3, 1864, Battle of Cold Harbor: 1,200
  19. June 15, 1904, wreck of the General Slocum: 1,021
  20. November 18, 1978, Jonestown, Guyana, mass suicide/murder: 913 [primarily Americans]
  21. Oct. 1-2, 1893, Cheniere Caminada Hurricane: 900 in the first 24 hours

Worst Disasters in American History:

(See above for sources, unless otherwise noted)

  1. 1980 Heat Wave (June-Sept. 1980): 10,000-15,000
  2. Galveston Hurricane (Sept. 8-9, 1900): 8,000-12,000
  3. 1901 Heat Wave: 9,508
  4. 1988 Drought/Heat Wave: 5,000-10,000
  5. 1936 Heat Wave : 4,678
  6. Hurricane Katrina (August 29, 2005 and in subsequent flooding): 2,500 to 4,400
  7. San Francisco Earthquake (April 18-21, 1906): 3,000
  8. Lake Okeechobee Hurricane (September 16, 1928): 2,500-3,000
  9. Johnstown Flood (May 31, 1889): 2,209
  10. 1975 Heat Wave (July 31-Aug. 3, 1975): 1,500-2,000
  11. Sultana (April 27, 1865): 1,547
  12. Sea Islands Hurricane (Aug 27-28, 1893): 1,000-2,000
  13. 1952 Heat Wave: 1,401
  14. General Slocum (June 15, 1904): 1,021

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Last updated December 2010

Copyright © 2005-2010 Matthew White