United States military casualties of war

The following is a tabulation of United States military casualties of war.

Overview

Note: "Total casualties" includes wounded, combat and non-combat deaths but not missing in action. "Deaths – other" includes all non-combat deaths including those from bombing, massacres, disease, suicide, and murder.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size:97%; text-align:right"

!rowspan="2" style="background:#B0C4DE" width="200px" | War or conflict

!rowspan="2" style="background:#B0C4DE" width="80px" data-sort-type="number" | Date

!colspan="3" style="background:#B0C4DE" data-sort-type="number" | Total U.S. deaths

!rowspan="2" style="background:#B0C4DE" width="60px" data-sort-type="number" | Wounded

!rowspan="2" style="background:#B0C4DE" width="80px" data-sort-type="number" | Total U.S. casualties

!rowspan="2" style="background:#B0C4DE" width="60px" data-sort-type="number" | Missing

!rowspan="2" style="background:#B0C4DE" width="80px" class="unsortable" | Sources and notes

!rowspan="2" style="background:#B0C4DE" width="80px" | Deaths as percentage of total population

! style="background:#B0C4DE" width="60px" data-sort-type="number" | Combat

! style="background:#B0C4DE" width="60px" data-sort-type="number" | Other

! style="background:#B0C4DE" width="60px" data-sort-type="number" | Total

|-bgcolor="Gainsboro"

| align="left" | American Revolutionary War

| align="left" | 1775–1783

| 6,800

| 17,000

| 23,800

| 8,500+

| 32,300+

| align="left" | Northwest Indian War

| align="left" | 1785–1796

| 1,056+

| 825+

| 1,881+

| align="left" | Quasi-War

| align="left" | 1798–1800

| 20

| 494

| 514

| 42

| 556

| align="left" | First Barbary War

| align="left" | 1801–1805

| 35

| 39

| 74

| 64

| 138

| align="left" | Other actions against pirates

| align="left" | 1800–1900

| 36

| 158+

| align="left" | Chesapeake–Leopard affair

| align="left" | 1807

| 3

| 0

| 3

| 18

| 21

|0.21%

| align="left" | Nuku Hiva Campaign

| align="left" | 1813–1814

| 5

| 0

| 5

| 11

| 16

| align="left" | Creek War

| align="left" | 1813–1814

| 575

|575

| align="left" | Second Barbary War

| align="left" | 1815

| 4

| 134

|138~

| 10

| 148

| align="left" | First Seminole War

| align="left" | 1817–1818

| 47

| 0

| 47

| 36

| 83

| align="left" | First Sumatran expedition

| align="left" | 1832

| 2

| 11

| 13

| 305

| 85

| 390

| align="left" | Second Seminole War

| align="left" | 1835–1842

| 328

| 1,207

| 1,535

|-bgcolor="Gainsboro"

| align="left" | Mexican–American War

| align="left" | 1846–1848

| 1,733

| 11,550

| 13,283

| 4,152

| 17,435

|0.06%

| align="left" | Cayuse War

| align="left" | 1847–1856

| 40

| 1

| 41

| 74

| 115

| align="left" | Rogue River Wars

| align="left" | 1851–1856

| 190

| 6

| 196

| 293

| 489

| align="left" | Yakima War

| align="left" | 1855–1856

| 32

| 2

| 34

| 92

| 126

| align="left" | Second Opium War

| align="left" | 1856–1860

| 12

| 39

| 51

|-bgcolor="Gainsboro"

| align="left" data-sort-value="Civil War" | American Civil War: total

| align="left" | 1861–1865

| 214,938

| 450,000~

| 655,000~

| 1,129,418+

|2.1%

|-bgcolor="Gainsboro"

| align="left" data-sort-value="Civil War-1" | American Civil War: Union casualties

| data-sort-value="1861–1865" |

| 110,100 to 140,414

|-bgcolor="Gainsboro"

|align="left" data-sort-value="Civil War-2" | American Civil War: Confederate casualties

| data-sort-value="1861–1865" |

| 94,000

| 195,000+

| 290,000+

|194,026

|483,026

| align="left" | Dakota War of 1862

| align="left" | 1862

| 70–113

| 150

| 220–263

| align="left" | Shimonoseki campaign

| align="left" | 1863

| 4–5

| 0

| 4–5

| 6

|-bgcolor="Gainsboro"

| align="left" | American Indian Wars

| align="left" | 1865–1898

| 919

|919~

| 1,025

|1,944

| align="left" | Modoc War

| align="left" | 1872–1873

| 56

| 88

| 144

| align="left" | Great Sioux War

| align="left" | 1875–1877

| 314

| 211

| 525

| align="left" | Nez Perce War

| align="left" | 1877

| 134

| 157

| 291

| align="left" | Bannock War

| align="left" | 1878

| 12

| 0

| 12

| 22

| 34

| align="left" | Ute War

| align="left" | 1879

| 15

| 0

| 15

| 52

| 67

| align="left" | Sheepeater Indian War

| align="left" | 1879

| 1

| 10

| 11

| align="left" | Ghost Dance War

| align="left" | 1890–1891

| 35

| 64

| 99

| align="left" | Battle of Sugar Point

| align="left" | 1898

| 7

| 0

| 7

| 16

| 23

|-bgcolor="Gainsboro"

| align="left" | Spanish–American War

| align="left" | 1898

| 385

| 2,061

| 2,446

| 1,622

| 4,068

| align="left" | Santo Domingo Affair

| align="left" | 1904

| 1

| 0

| 1

| 2

| align="left" | Mexican Revolution

| align="left" | 1914–1919

| 120

| 61

| 181

| 319

| 500

| align="left" | United States occupation of Haiti

| align="left" | 1915–1934

| 10

| 138

| 148

| 26+

| 184+

| align="left" | United States occupation of the Dominican Republic

| align="left" | 1916–1924

| 144

| 40

| 184

| 50

| 234

|-bgcolor="Gainsboro"

| align="left" | World War I

| align="left" | 1914–1918

| 53,402

| 63,114

| 116,516

| 204,002

| 320,518

| 3,350

| align="left" | North Russia intervention: American Expeditionary Force, Siberia casualties

| align="left" | 1918–1920

| 160

| 168

| 328

| 52+

| 380+

|-bgcolor="Gainsboro"

| align="left" | World War II

| align="left" | 1939–1945

| 291,557

| 113,842

| 405,399

| 670,846

| 1,076,245

| 72,491

|-bgcolor="Gainsboro"

| align="left" | Korean War

| align="left" | 1950–1953

| 33,686

| 2,835

| 36,574

| 103,284

| 139,858

| 7,564

|See Note E below

| align="left" | Cold War with the Soviet Union

| align="left" | 1947–1991

| 32

| 12

| 44

| 126

| align="left" | 1958 Lebanon crisis

| align="left" | 1958

| 1

| 5

| 6

| 1+

| 7+

| align="left" | Bay of Pigs Invasion

| align="left" | 1961

| 5

| 20

| 25

| align="left" | Cuban Missile Crisis

| align="left" | 1962

| 1

| 19

| 20

| align="left" | Korean DMZ Conflict

| align="left" | 1966–1969

| 75

| 6

| 81

| 120

| 201

| align="left" | USS Liberty incident

| align="left" | 1967

| 0

| 34

| 171

| 205

| align="left" | Mayaguez incident

| align="left" | 1975

| 38

| 3

| 41

| 50

| 91

| align="left" | Operation Eagle Claw

| align="left" | 1980

| 0

| 8

| 4

| 12

| align="left" | Salvadoran Civil War

| align="left" | 1980–1992

| 22

| 15

| 37

| 35

| 72

| align="left" | 1982 Lebanon War

| align="left" | 1982–1984

| 256

| 10

| 266

| 169

| 435

| align="left" | Operation Earnest Will

| align="left" | 1987–1988

| 39

| 0

| 39

| 31

| 100

| align="left" | United States invasion of Grenada

| align="left" | 1983

| 18

| 1

| 19

| 119

|138

| align="left" | United States invasion of Panama

| align="left" | 1989

| 23

| 324

| 347

| align="left" | Operation Provide Comfort

| align="left" | 1991–1996

| 1

| 18

| 19

| 4

| 23

| align="left" | Operation Restore Hope

| align="left" | 1992–1993

| 29

| 14

| 43

| 153

| 196

| 8

| align="left" | Bosnian War

| align="left" | 1992–1995

| 1

| 11

| 12

| align="left" | Kosovo War

| align="left" | 1999

| 0

| 2

| 0

|

|-bgcolor="Gainsboro"

| align="left" | War in Afghanistan

| align="left" | 2001–2021

| 1,910

| 415 -->

| align="left" | Raid on Yakla

| align="left" | 2017

| 1

| 3

| 4

| align="left" | 2026 United States intervention in Venezuela

| align="left" | 2026

| 0

| 7

| align="left" | 2026 Iran war

| align="left" | 2026

|15

|538

|553

| align="left" | Total

| align="left" | 1775–2026

| 666,447+

| 673,931+

| 1,308,468+

| 1,452,040+

| 2,852,901+

| 40,031+

Wars ranked by U.S. battle deaths

The following is a list of wars caught by number of U.S. battle deaths suffered by military forces; deaths from disease and other non-battle causes are not included. Although the Confederate States of America did not consider itself part of the United States, and its forces were not part of the U.S. Army, its battle deaths are included with the losses of the Union (American Civil War).

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Rank !! War !! Years !! Deaths

| 1 || World War II || 1941–1945 || 291,557

| 2 || American Civil War || 1861–1865 || 214,938

| 3 || World War I || 1917–1918 || 53,402

| 4|| Vietnam War || 1955–1975 || 47,434

| 5 || Korean War || 1950–1953 || 33,686

| 6 || American Revolutionary War || 1775–1783 || 6,800

| 7 || Iraq War || 2003–2011 || 4,424

| 8 || War of 1812 || 1812–1815 || 2,260

| 9 || War in Afghanistan || 2001–2021 || 1,833

| 10 || Mexican–American War || 1846–1848 || 1,733

| 11 || Gulf War || 1990–1991 || 288

Wars ranked by total number of U.S. military deaths

{| class="wikitable sortable"

! Rank !! War !! Years !! data-sort-type="number"|Deaths !! Deaths per day !! U.S. population in first year of war !! Deaths as percentage of population

| 1 || American Civil War || 1861–1865 || 655,000 (est.)(U.S./Confederate)|| 449 || 31,443,000 || 2.11% (1860)

| 2 || World War II || 1941–1945 || 405,399 || 297 || 133,402,000 ||0.307% (1940)

| 3 || World War I || 1917–1918 || 116,516 || 200|| 103,268,000 ||0.110% (1920)

| 4 || Vietnam War || 1961–1975 || 58,209 || 11 || 179,323,175 || 0.032% (1970)

| 5 || Korean War || 1950–1953 || 36,574 || 30 || 151,325,000 || 0.024% (1950)

| 6 || American Revolutionary War || 1775–1783 || 25,000 || 11 || 2,500,000 || 1.00% (1780)

| 7 || War of 1812 || 1812–1815 || 15,000 || 15 || 8,000,000 ||0.207% (1810)

| 8 || Mexican–American War || 1846–1848 || 13,283 || 29 || 21,406,000 || 0.057% (1850)

| 9 || Iraq War || 2003–2011 || 4,576 || 2 || 294,043,000 ||0.002% (2010)

| 10 || Philippine–American War || 1899–1902 || 4,196 || 3.8 || 72,129,001 ||0.006% (1900)

| 11 || War in Afghanistan || 2001–2021 || 2,432 || 0.3 || 294,043,000|| 0.001% (2010)

| 12 || Spanish–American War || 1898 || 2,246 || 9.6 || 62,022,250 || 0.004% (1890)

"Deaths per day" is the total number of Americans killed in military service, divided by the number of days between the commencement and end of hostilities. "Deaths per population" is the total number of deaths in military service, divided by the U.S. population of the year indicated.

Notes

a. Revolutionary War: All figures from the Revolutionary War are rounded estimates. Commonly cited casualty figures provided by the Department of Defense are 4,435 killed and 6,188 wounded, although the original government report that generated these numbers warned that the totals were incomplete and far too low. In 1974, historian Howard Peckham and a team of researchers came up with a total of 6,824 killed in action and 8,445 wounded. Because of incomplete records, Peckham estimated that this new total number of killed in action was still about 1,000 too low. Military historian John Shy subsequently estimated the total killed in action at 8,000, and argued that the number of wounded was probably far higher, about 25,000. The "other" deaths are primarily from disease, including prisoners who died on British prison ships.

b. Other actions against pirates: Includes actions fought in the West Indies, the Greek isles, off of Louisiana, China and Vietnam. Other deaths resulted from disease and accidents.

c. Civil War: All Union casualty figures, and Confederate killed in action, from The Oxford Companion to American Military History except where noted (NPS figures).

ca. Civil War April 2, 2012, Doctor David Hacker after extensive research offered new casualty rates higher by 20%; his work has been accepted by the academic community and is represented here.

d. World War I figures include expeditions in North Russia and Siberia. See also World War I casualties

da. World War II Note: as of March 31, 1946, there were an estimated 286,959 dead of whom 246,492 were identified; of 40,467 who were unidentified 18,641 were located {10,986 reposed in military cemeteries and 7,655 in isolated graves} and 21,826 were reported not located. As of April 6, 1946, there were 539 American Military Cemeteries which contained 241,500 dead. Note the American Battle Monuments Commission database for the World War II reports that in 18 ABMC Cemeteries total of 93,238 buried and 78,979 missing and that "The World War II database on this web site contains the names of those buried at our cemeteries, or listed as Missing in Action, buried or lost at sea. It does not contain the names of the 233,174 Americans returned to the United States for burial..." Similarly, the ABMC Records do not cover inter-war deaths such as the Port Chicago disaster in which 320 died. As of June 2018 total of US World War II casualties listed as MIA is 72,823

e. Korean War: Note: gives figures as In-theatre/non theater}

After their retreat in 1950, dead Marines and soldiers were buried at a temporary gravesite near Hungnam, North Korea. During "Operation Glory" which occurred from July to November 1954 the dead of each side were exchanged; remains of 4,167 US soldiers/Marines were exchanged for 13,528 North Korean/Chinese dead. After "Operation Glory" 416 Korean War "unknowns" were buried in the Punchbowl Cemetery. According to a DPMO white paper. 1,394 names were also transmitted during "Operation Glory" from the Chinese and North Koreans, of whom 858 names proved to be correct; of the 4,167 returned remains were found to be 4,219 individuals of whom 2,944 were found to be Americans of whom all but 416 were identified by name. Of 239 Korean War unaccounted for: 186 not associated with Punchbowl unknowns (176 were identified and of the remaining 10 cases 4 were non-Americans of Asiatic descent; one was British; 3 were identified and 2 cases unconfirmed); Of 10 Korean War "Punchbowl Unknowns" 6 were identified. The W.A. Johnson listing of 496 POWsincluding 25 civilianswho died in North Korea can be found here and there

Listed as MIA: 7,683

USS Liberty incident 1967 killed 34; Wounded 173 by Israeli armed forces
Vietnam War prior to 1964-US Casualties were Laos – 2 killed in 1954; and Vietnam 1946–1954 – 2 killed see;

f. Iraq War. See also Casualties of the Iraq War. Sources:

g. Afghanistan. Casualties include those that occurred in Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Philippines, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Yemen.

Notes

References

External links

[Names of Soldiers Who Died in Defense of the American Union, Interred in the National [and Other] Cemeteries, Volumes 1-8]
Name of Soldiers Who Died in the Defense of the American Union Interred in the National Cemeteries Arkansas, California, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Nevada and the territories of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, New Mexico, and Washington published 1866
Name of Soldiers Who Died in the Defense of the American Union Interred in Eastern District of Texas, Central District of Texas, Rio Grande Department of Texas, Camp Ford Tyler Texas, and Corpus Christi Teaxas Vol 6-9 pub 1866
Name of Soldiers Who Died in the Defense of the American Union Interred in the National Cemeteries Maine, Minnesota, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Arkansas, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, and Colorado Territory Volumes 7-10 published 1866
Name of Soldiers Who Died in the Defense of the American Union Interred in New York, Illinois, Virginia, West Virginia, Missouri, and the territories of Colorado and Utah Vol 13-15 published 1867
[Names of Soldiers Who Died in Defense of the American Union, Interred in the National [and Other] Cemeteries; Volume No. 16]
Name of Soldiers Who Died in the Defense of the American Union Interred in the National Cemeteries and other places Brookline, Cambridge and Worcester Massachusetts; Buffalo, Chautauqua, Cypress Hills (Additional), Fort Niagara, Lockport, Lodi, Madison Barracks, Plattsburg Barracks, and Rochester, New York. Gettysburg, Mercerberg, Reading, Philadelphia, Tamaqua and Upton, Pennsylvania; Barttleboro and Montpelier Vermont, City Point (Additional) Danville (Additional) Glendale, Richmond and Yorktown (Additional) vOL XVII pub 1868
Name of Soldiers Who Died in the Defense of the American Union Interred in the National Cemeteries Cornith, Mississippi, Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee and Jefferson Barracks, Missouri published 1869
[Names of Soldiers Who Died in Defense of the American Union, Interred in the National [and Other] Cemeteries; Volume No. 21]
[Names of Soldiers Who Died in Defense of the American Union, Interred in the National Cemetery at Nashville, Tennessee Vol XXII]
American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics Congressional Research Service
Louisiana State University's statistical summary of major American wars
Washington Post database of all U.S. service-member casualties
CNN list of U.S. Casualties in Iraq since 2003.
Complete list of U.S. Casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003.
Iraq Casualties
Navy and Marine death tolls
Iraq and Afghanistan Casualty Count