Civil War Trust Infographic: “Battles of the Civil War”

The Civil War Trust’s mission to preserve historic battlefields of the American Civil War (1861-1865) necessarily includes an educational component so the public understands why it is important to save this hallowed ground. To this end, they have published a great deal of information about the Civil War in general, and about specific battles in particular, on their website: CivilWar.org.

The Civil War Trust’s recently released infographic underscores the human cost of war by ranking Civil War battles by casualty rates, and comparing the loss of life to other wars and conflicts the United States has participated in.

Source: https://www.civilwar.org/learn/articles/battles-civil-war-infographic
Brought to you by The Civil War Trust

I’d like to highlight the section of the infographic showing overall casualty rates for the Civil War. Note the information in brackets, where it says:

Some modern research indicates that the number of Civil War deaths could be considerably higher.

Civil War Deaths

The oft-cited figure of 620,000 dead in the Civil War has been challenged by historian J. David Hacker of Binghamton University in New York. In a December 2011 article published in the Civil War History journal, he suggests the death toll could be as much as 20% higher: 750,00 casualties instead of 620,000.

Read more about how Hacker calculated the new figures using digitized census data from 1850-1880 in these articles:

New Analysis Suggests Civil War Took Bigger Toll than Previously Estimated

New Estimate Raises Civil War Death Toll

 

Last updated 15 Jan 2018 to correct the infographic link

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