Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Military Deaths in America's Major Wars
Pew Research Center ^

Posted on 11/11/2014 10:58:57 AM PST by EveningStar



TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: deaths; military; war
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last

1 posted on 11/11/2014 10:58:57 AM PST by EveningStar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

That really puts things in perspective.


2 posted on 11/11/2014 11:02:23 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (I don't have 'Hobbies.' I'm developing a robust Post-Apocalyptic skill set...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

Why no numbers for the war of 1812 or the Mexican war I wonder.


3 posted on 11/11/2014 11:03:56 AM PST by SoCal Pubbie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

Consider that during ww1 we were involved in combat for only 11 months, yet incurred 53k kia.


4 posted on 11/11/2014 11:04:18 AM PST by skeeter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SoCal Pubbie

Or Spanish-American war.


5 posted on 11/11/2014 11:04:50 AM PST by SoCal Pubbie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

While I appreciate the info, I wonder what they consider I minor conflict. I don’t like the major vs. minor designation; all lives lost are equal in paying a price for our freedom.

Same goes for training and non-combat deaths in my mind. If you served, you served. Gen. Patton died in an auto accident...that doesn’t mean it was not fighting for our freedom at the time.


6 posted on 11/11/2014 11:06:37 AM PST by 5thGenTexan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

their numbers on the War between the States are way off .

The Civil War Trust collates to 620,000


7 posted on 11/11/2014 11:12:11 AM PST by LeoWindhorse
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar
Consider the US population at the time vs. war deaths:

1860 census: 31.4 million, 500,000 deaths, 1.6%

1940 census: 132 million, 300,000 deaths, 0.2%

8 posted on 11/11/2014 11:13:24 AM PST by Michael.SF. (It takes a gun to feed a village.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

That number for the Civil War deaths is probably a low ball estimate. I read about a researcher who analyzed data from the 1860 census and compared it to the 1870 census. He analyzed the cohorts of men by age group county by county. He estimated that as many as 800,000 men who were counted in 1860 were not counted in 1870.


9 posted on 11/11/2014 11:17:01 AM PST by forgotten man
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SoCal Pubbie; 5thGenTexan; LeoWindhorse; forgotten man; All

If you click on the link, you’ll find a section where you can post comments. :)


10 posted on 11/11/2014 11:19:40 AM PST by EveningStar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Diana in Wisconsin

bfl


11 posted on 11/11/2014 11:20:16 AM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: forgotten man
I think you maybe correct. In a Regiment that my family went the whole war with, 1861 through 1865, Veteran Volunteers, they suffered 134 Battle Casualties and 284 deaths to disease.

This includes every major Battle of the Army of the Tennessee and action in Missouri.

12 posted on 11/11/2014 11:29:13 AM PST by Little Bill (EVICT Queen Jean)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

Any way you slice it, it’s over a million men lost to preserve of this country the freedoms (the ones we have left) we enjoy. Those deaths are over our 238 years of history. That averages out to over 4,200 soldiers/year. The cost of freedom is high.

Thank you to all that have served.


13 posted on 11/11/2014 11:29:55 AM PST by Tenacious 1 (You are lukewarm, and I spew you out of my mouth. Even God considers spineless behavior distasteful.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: skeeter
Consider that during ww1 we were involved in combat for only 11 months, yet incurred 53k kia.

We're covering WWI in a Military History class I'm taking and I finally realized how astounding that mobilization was. In 1914 you could have fit our entire army into a current-day football stadium - didn't reach six figures. By summer of 1918 we had a million men in theater, two million before the thing was over. The Germans were looking at 10,000 fresh American troops landing each day at a time when they couldn't replace their own losses. When their last offensive in 1918, the Kaiserschlacht, failed (the Marines held them at Belleau Wood in that one), they knew it was over.

At least one British commentator grumbled in 1936 that we'd have been better off staying out of the thing because it gave the Germans an excuse to sue for better terms in the Armistice than they otherwise would have gotten. That was Winston Churchill. (Source: JFC Fuller's Military History of the Western World, Vol III)

14 posted on 11/11/2014 11:30:40 AM PST by Billthedrill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Billthedrill

Thats funny, because if it wasn’t for England and France being so damn determined to extract their pound of flesh under the surrender terms we probably wouldn’t have had to go over there again twenty five years later


15 posted on 11/11/2014 11:33:00 AM PST by skeeter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: EveningStar

Add up those after the Civil War and compare the numbers under demoncrat administrations versus the number under conservative administrations. It will tell you that demoncrats know how to start wars and get a lot of people killed, but they do not know how to fight wars.


16 posted on 11/11/2014 11:35:54 AM PST by Temujinshordes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LeoWindhorse

I’ve always heard the figures for WWII at around 320-340k. Thats alot of non battle death casualties.


17 posted on 11/11/2014 11:35:57 AM PST by skeeter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: skeeter

Yeah, it did seem a little odd to read that. What terms Churchill had in mind in 1936 weren’t cited, but clearly what he meant was that they’d have prevented the rise of the Nazis. 1936 was a real bad year for that. Possibly by leaving the Kaiser in place? I really have no idea.


18 posted on 11/11/2014 11:36:35 AM PST by Billthedrill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Billthedrill
Wilson did encourage the allies to go easier on Germany, although I don't know what else they had in mind for them - maybe partitioning the country or something.

It seems to me Germany was really no more guilty a party in that war than any of the other major participants. I would imagine the allies would've invaded them if Germany hadn't invaded them first.

19 posted on 11/11/2014 11:43:40 AM PST by skeeter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: SoCal Pubbie
Interesting figures (source: Wikipedia):

War of 1812: 2200 dead

Mexican War: 1,733 dead

Spanish–American War: 2,910 dead (345 from combat, 2,565 from disease)

20 posted on 11/11/2014 11:43:42 AM PST by EveningStar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson