Civil War Statistics | Facing History & Ourselves
Reading

Statistics From the Civil War

This reading features statistics on the number of deaths during the Civil War.
Last Updated:

At a Glance

Reading

Language

English — US
Also available in:
Spanish

Subject

  • History
  • Democracy & Civic Engagement
  • Racism

Below are statistics about the Civil War. 1

750,000

Total number of deaths from the Civil War 2

504

Deaths per day during the Civil War

2.5

Approximate percentage of the American population that died during the Civil War

7,000,000           

Number of Americans lost if 2.5% of the American population died in a war today

8,064                  

Number of American soldiers who died in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (as of 3/13/13) 3

2,100,000           

Number of Northerners mobilized to fight for the Union army

880,000              

Number of Southerners mobilized to fight for the Confederacy

40+                       

Estimated percentage of Civil War dead who were never identified

66                         

Estimated percentage of dead African American Union soldiers who were never identified

2 out of 3           

Number of Civil War deaths that occurred from disease rather than battle

68,162                 

Number of inquiries answered by the Missing Soldiers Office from 1865-1868

4,000,000           

Number of enslaved persons in the United States in 1860

180,000              

Number of African American soldiers that served in the Civil War

1 in 5                  

Average death rate for all Civil War soldiers

3:1                       

Ratio of Confederate deaths to Union deaths

9:1                       

Ratio of African American Civil War troops who died of disease to those that died on the battlefield, largely due to discriminatory medical care

100,000+           

Number of Civil War Union corpses found in the South through a federal reinterment program from 1866-1869

303,356             

Number of Union soldiers who were reinterred in 74 congressionally mandated national cemeteries by 1871

0                         

Number of Confederate soldiers buried in those national cemeteries

How to Cite This Reading

Facing History & Ourselves, "Statistics From the Civil War," last updated March 14, 2016.

This reading contains text not authored by Facing History & Ourselves. See footnotes for source information.

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