Kevin_Kennedy
Defend Liberty
- Aug 27, 2008
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The Civil War already considered the deadliest conflict in American history in fact took a toll far more severe than previously estimated. Thats what a new analysis of census data by Binghamton University historian J. David Hacker reveals.
Hacker says the wars dead numbered about 750,000, an estimate thats 20 percent higher than the commonly cited figure of 620,000. His findings will be published in December in the journal Civil War History.
The traditional estimate has become iconic, Hacker says. Its been quoted for the last hundred years or more. If you go with that total for a minute 620,000 the number of men dying in the Civil War is more than in all other American wars from the American Revolution through the Korean War combined. And consider that the American population in 1860 was about 31 million people, about one-tenth the size it is today. If the war were fought today, the number of deaths would total 6.2 million.
Historian revises estimate of Civil War dead