Jgirl89
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This is a little bit of a hard number to pin down, since records of the time are a little imprecise about exact casualties. To the best of our knowledge, however, around 620,000 Americans died in the Civil War. About 320,000 of those were Union soldiers. The Confederate numbers are a bit harder to track, because many of the records are missing, but their deaths totaled somewhere around 260,000. Of the total 620,000, about 205,000 were battle-related deaths. Illness and other causes made up for the other 415,000. The costliest battle in terms of life lost was the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania, where the Union was victorious. 51,000 men died in this battle alone, 23,000 of whom were Union soldiers and 28,000 Confederate. This battle killed more than 37% of the Confederate troops engaged, and 28% of the Union soldiers present.
The number of deaths in the Civil War is certainly lower in the more mechanized fighting later on, but the impact of the war on the country, particularly the Southern states, was devastating. It is the opinion of some that the South never truly recovered from the effects of the "war between the states," and that its former antebellum glory is lost forever. The Union was affected by the war as well, but as deeply as their Southern brothers.
 Posted 5427 day ago
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