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

Worst American This or That





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:

The US government ignores the Philippine War.

The total given by the VA for the Indian Wars ("1,000") seems to be a wild guess. Just two major defeats -- Custer's and St. Clair's -- add up to about 900 dead all by themselves.

The official number of Americans killed in the Revolutionary War (4,435) is only about 2/3 the numbers usually given by historians.

The total of US combat deaths during the Civil War is given as 140,414 -- or some 30,000 higher than most historians would estimate. I suspect (but don't know for sure) that the boost may come from the DoD counting deaths among POWs as combat rather than disease. I can't think of where else they'd get 30,000 more war dead.

The VA accepts without comment the very incomplete statistics of Confederate War dead -- 74,524.

incomplete statistics of Confederate War dead -- 74,524. The upshot of these unusual Civil War estimates is that it appears that the ratio of Union to Confederate killed was 2:1, rather than the more widely accepted 55:45. This distorts our understanding of the nature of the Civil War, and it perpetuates the idea that the North won through sheer brute numbers -- which may or may not be true, but you should at least use reliable numbers to determine this.

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)

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:

Chronological List of Actions, &C., with Indians From January 15, 1837 to January, 1891 US killed: 81 officers, 1182 men & 539 citizens. Indians: 4881

Heitman, Historical Register and Dictionary… , Vol. 2, p. 295 59 officers and 860 men were killed in >1000 actions

, Vol. 2, p. 295 Utley, Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, 1866-1891 (1974) Data indicates over 1000 combat actions in which the Army casualties were 2000; Indian 6000

(1974)

Sources which I am using for my recalculation:

US Army CMH: Named Campaigns - Indian Wars Encyclopedia of North American Indians Chronological List of Actions, &C., with Indians From January 15, 1837 to January, 1891 (as summarized above) 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:

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:

Worst Disasters in American History:

(See above for sources, unless otherwise noted)

1980 Heat Wave (June-Sept. 1980): 10,000-15,000 August 16, 1988 AP: "later calculated to have led to 15,000 more deaths than would have been expected in a normal summer"

16 Oct. 1980 Associated Press & 7 Nov. 1980 Facts on File World News Digest: NOAA reported direct death toll of 1,265 deaths.

NCDC: 10,000 d. Galveston Hurricane (Sept. 8-9, 1900): 8,000-12,000 1901 Heat Wave: 9,508 November 7, 1980 Facts on File World News Digest: 9,508 1988 Drought/Heat Wave: 5,000-10,000 NCDC: 5,000-10,000 1936 Heat Wave : 4,678 16 Oct. 1980 Associated Press & 7 Nov. 1980 Facts on File World News Digest: 4,678 Hurricane Katrina (August 29, 2005 and in subsequent flooding): 2,500 to 4,400 22 Nov 2005 USA Today: 6,644 people still missing after Katrina. "Those counting the victims are particularly concerned about an estimated 1,300 unaccounted-for people who lived in areas that were heavily damaged by Katrina, or who were disabled at the time the storm hit." Official death toll: 1,306 -- including 301 unidentified.

January 19, 2006 CNN: More than 3,200 people are officially still unaccounted for.

Feb 6, 2006 Newsweek: about 2,500 people remain missing and the trail is going cold. About 100 unidentified bodies left.

Aug. 31, 2010, Houston Chronicle: 1,464 dead and 135 missing (Direct storm casualties reported by Louisiana in 2007)

[Estimate = 1,300 official + 1,300 to 3,200 missing -100 unidentified probably counted among both the dead and the missing = 2,500 to 4,400 = ca. 3,500 if you split the difference.] San Francisco Earthquake (April 18-21, 1906): 3,000 Lake Okeechobee Hurricane (September 16, 1928): 2,500-3,000 Johnstown Flood (May 31, 1889): 2,209 1975 Heat Wave (July 31-Aug. 3, 1975): 1,500-2,000 July 9, 1986 AP: 1,500-2,000 Sultana (April 27, 1865): 1,547 Sea Islands Hurricane (Aug 27-28, 1893): 1,000-2,000 1952 Heat Wave: 1,401 16 Oct. 1980 Associated Press & 7 Nov. 1980 Facts on File World News Digest: 1,401 General Slocum (June 15, 1904): 1,021

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Last updated December 2010

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