Statistics From the Civil War

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

• 1Except where noted, figures adapted from "The Civil War by the Numbers," American Experience: Death and the Civil War companion website (accessed April 25, 2013).
• 2 Guy Gugliotta, “New Estimate Raises Civil War Death Toll,” New York Times, April 3, 2012.
• 33 Iraq and Afghanistan statistics from “U.S. and Coalition Casualties,” CNN.