In 1861, when the Union Army entered the First Battle of Bull Run, they thought a quick victory would bring an end to the war. Then, as it became apparent that it would become a military confrontation, both sides believed it would not last very long. Senator from South Carolina made the statement he would drink all the blood shed over the South declaring their independence from the Union. Southerners did not believe the North would mobilize an army against them. Or, if it did, it would be brief and mostly for show purposes. In 1860, no one expected any armed conflict would come from the Southern states secession from the Union. Newer estimates have put the number at about 750,000 or about 20 % higher than previously approximated. For over a hundred years the total number of dead has been accepted by most historians as 618,222, generally rounded off to 620,000. All Civil War casualty numbers are estimates, no matter what the source. The exact number of dead will never be known with any certainty. Of those who died, by far the leading cause of death was disease. The violence in battles such as Shiloh, Antietam, Stones River and Gettysburg shocked everyone in the country, both North and South. The American Civil War was the nation's bloodiest war. Burial of the dead on the Antietam battlefieldĪmerican Civil War casualties are those soldiers, both Union and Confederate, who died, were wounded, went missing or were captured.
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