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I can cite several historical sources for the fact but it's most recently been repeated in the highly acclaimed history by Jay Winik, "April 1865: The Month that Saved America". The fact is that if we take the fatalities of ALL of America's wars COMBINED the total is less than that of the Civil War. Yes, 620,000 dead from the Civil War alone! As Winik points out this was "...one-twelfth of the North and an astonishing one-fifth of the South; all told, it was the most battle deaths in the country's history, as great as in ALL the nation's other wars combined." (p.354) And this when the population of the country was only about 40 million. The point of this incredible fact is that this was one of the seminal events in America's history -- an indeliable part of our common heritage and history and one we have every right to acknowledge.