The myth about the war

[Gunfreak]

This is something that has anoyed me alot, it's how some people hype up the war or battles, when they don't need to be hyped up.

Shelby Foote did this a few times, he said Shiloh was as bloody as Waterloo, which is just silly, Waterloo was bloodier then Gettysburg and waterloo lasted only 10 hours, pound for pound, the napoleonic wars were much bloodier then the ACW, yet some people seem to think ACW was some kind of super war that outdid all pervious wars and wars after, just to make it even more epic.

Another commen one, is to compear gettysburg with Vietnam, they say, "the castualties at gettysburg were as high as the americans killed in vietnam" were there is a diffrence CASUALTIES is NOT DEAD, yes Gettysburg had about 54 000 castualties, but less then 8000 actualy died, vietnam had 58 000 DEAD!! and over 350 000 wounded, meaning castualties were over 400 000, quite a lot higher then 54 000 at gettysburg, ofcouse gettysburg was pound for pound bloodier, with 30+ % castualties, much much higher then vietnam were it was around 5% But still not in anyway did gettysburg has as many killed as vietnam.

Yet another one, is that gettysburg was the bloodiest battle in american history, Which it's not 8000ish dead, 40 000ish wounded, compeard to 19 000 dead and up to 60 000 wounded in the battle of the bulge.

So yes, the american civil war was an epic and bloody war, one that helped shape the united states for ever, yes it was the bloodiest war in american history with combined losses at over 600 000 dead.
But lets not try and make it even more bloody and nasty then it was, it was bad enough in reality, with out having to make up "fun" facts.

[Chris G.]

I believe the quote is "Gettysburg, the bloodiest battle on American soil" not, the bloodiest American battle, which would be an accurate quote.

As far as absolute ferocity though, as far as ACW battles are concerned, I'd think that Franklin and Chickamauga rate right up there with Gettysburg and Sharpsburg.

[Armchair General]

As far as absolute ferocity though, as far as ACW battles are concerned, I'd think that Franklin and Chickamauga rate right up there with Gettysburg and Sharpsburg.

Indeed. I'd add Spotsylvania to that.

[Keeler]

But lets not try and make it even more bloody and nasty then it was, it was bad enough in reality, with out having to make up "fun" facts.

To make accurate comparisons with other wars, one needs to either look at either a) the death rate as a percentage of total combatants or b) the death rate as a percentage of total population.

Here's some food for thought


Event----- American Deaths ----- US Population ---- Deaths per Million

Virginia Uprising, 1622 --- 347 ---- 1,240 ---- 1587
Attack on Lexington and Concord, 1775 --- At least 50 ---- 3,000,000 ---- 17
Antietam, 1862 --- 3656 ---- 31,443,321 ---- 118
Pearl Harbor , 1941 --- 2,403 ---- 133,000,000 ---- 18
September 11th Attacks, 2001 --- 3,119 ---- 300,000,000 ---- 10

September 11th is the lowest rate, and yet I would guess that almost everyone in the US knew someone who was killed or someone who knew someone killed in the attacks. For me, that experiences gives an inkling of the impact a death rate of 118 per million would have had on small, close knit communities who sent 100-man companies onto the killing fields of the Civil War. And that was one day out of four years. Frankly, I don't how either side sustained such losses and kept on fighting.