Military Deaths in America's Major Wars

Pew Research Center ^

[forgotten man]

I would call that a holocaust. I cannot imagine the pain and suffering that occurred in this country during the Civil War. I bet almost every family lost one or more family members. Other wars were very bad too. U.S. troops were in combat for about 6 months in WW I with over 50,000 KIA (more than that died from the flu). How many U.S. troops were killed during WWII during the last six months in between the Battle of the Bulge (December 15,1944) through the Battle of Okinawa (June 15, 1945)? I guess more than 100,000.

[dsm69]

Wonder why they make no mention of the War of 1812, the Mexican War of 1846-48 and the Spanish-American War of 1898?

We lost over 2,000 KIA in the War of 1812, over 1,500 KIA in the Mexican War and 400 KIA in the Spanish-American War (plus 1,000 more KIA in the corresponding Philippine Insurrection after we acquired the Philippine Islands from Spain).

These were not insignificant wars. We acquired the modern U.S. Southwest as a result of the Mexican War. All or parts of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming.

We acquired permanently Puerto Rico and Guam, the Philippines until 1946, Cuba for a very brief time until their independence and other old Spanish territories in the Spanish-American War and this war also established the United States as a Global Power.

We were able to permanently keep our independence from Great Britain from the war of 1812 - our existence was never threatened by a European power again after that war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_casualties_of_war

[spel_grammer_an_punct_polise]

My much older cousin died on a submarine which was sunk during WWII. He was my inspiration to serve on the ‘boats’.

[Maine Mariner]

And for WWI another 50,000 deaths from
other causes besides kia. Flu, disease,
and so forth.

[Billthedrill]

Yep. We actually lost more people to the influenza pandemic than to enemy action. And - here's the one that blows my mind - so did everybody else in the war.

The Spanish sure took a smearing on the name. It could have been called the Fort Riley flu with more accuracy.

[M Kehoe]

I would like to thank ALL my brothers in arms for their service and sacrifices.

[Missing some conflicts on that chart]

5.56mm

[RetiredArmy]

Amen sister, amen.

[EveningStar]

See posts 3, 5, and 20. :)

[M Kehoe]

Proudly posting since 1998 without reading the thread.

8^)

5.56mm

[dsm69]

Thanks, EveningStar.

I didn’t notice that you had just posted the answers to my question in your post 20 until after I replied. I should check down thread responses more carefully before I post. :-)

Funny that Pew would omit these three wars where there were actual Declarations of War (War of 1812, Mexican War and the Spanish-American War were all “declared” wars) that were just as “major” and more historically significant wars as the more recent, un-Declared wars of the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Two of the three “major” wars that Pew omitted (Mexican and Spanish-American) we gained major territory that created several states and added significant overseas territory. In the War of 1812, we were able to permanently retain our independence from Great Britain.

It is way too soon to tell what long term impact on our history the more recent wars will have.