The American Civil War is the deadliest conflict in United States history. Though the precise number of casualties remains unknown, a 2011 analysis from demographic historian Dr. J. David Hacker estimated that three quarters of a million people lost their lives during the American Civil War. Dr. Hacker’s research was met with praise by Civil War historians, and his estimate is just one of many notable facts about this pivotal conflict in American history.
• The National Park Service notes incomplete and destroyed enlistment records from the Confederate Army complicate efforts to determine how many soldiers fought in the American Civil War. However, historians estimate the total number of soldiers is somewhere between three and four million. The NPS notes nearly 2.7 million combatants enlisted for the Union Army, while estimates for the Confederate Army range between 750,000 and a little more than 1.2 million.
• The American Battlefield Trust reports that the Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, featured unprecedented carnage over two days in April 1862. The battle enabled Union troops to penetrate the Confederate interior, but the cost was steep, producing more casualties than any conflict on the American continent to date. By the time the battle ended, more than 13,000 Union troops had died while Confederate losses neared 11,000.
• American Civil War nurse and eventual founder of the American Red Cross Clara Barton was tending to a wounded soldier during the Battle of Antietam in September 1862 when a bullet ripped through her sleeve. Though Barton was unharmed, the bullet killed the man she was trying to help.
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. is best remembered for his lengthy tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court, which began in 1902 and ended in 1932, when Justice Holmes was 90 years old. But long before Justice Holmes took a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court, he was a combatant in the American Civil War, during which he was injured on three separate occasions.
• Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden had two sons who became major generals during the American Civil War. Though that’s notable on its own, it’s even more so given that Senator Crittenden’s sons fought on opposite sides. A third son served in the Union Army as well, attaining the rank of colonel, while two of the Senator’s grandsons also fought in the conflict, with one fighting for the Confederate Army and the other serving in the U.S. Navy under Union Rear Admiral David Farragut.
• President Abraham L inc o ln’ s famous Gettysburg Address in 1863 is well-known for its brevity. But Edward Everett, who spoke before President Lincoln at the dedication ceremony of the Gettysburg National Cemetery, spoke for more than two hours.
