Ten Deadliest Civil War Battles

Ten Bloodiest, Deadliest, Costliest Battles of the American Civil War
(killed, wounded, missing, and captured)

Ten Deadliest Battles of the American Civil War: The Battle Casualties

#1
Battle of Gettysburg

Date: July 1-3, 1863

Campaign: Gettysburg Campaign*

Location: Pennsylvania
Confederate Commander: Robert E. Lee
Union Commander: George G. Meade
Confederate Forces Engaged: 75,054
Union Forces Engaged: 83,289
Winner: Union
Casualties: 51,000 (23,000 Union and 28,000 Confederate)**

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#2
Battle of Chickamauga*
Date: September 18-20, 1863

Campaign: Chickamauga Campaign

Location: Georgia
Confederate Commander: Braxton Bragg
Union Commander: William Rosecrans
Confederate Forces Engaged: 66,326
Union Forces Engaged: 58,222 
Winner: Confederacy
Casualties: 34,624 (16,170 Union and 18,454 Confederate)**

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#3

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House*
Date: May 8-21, 1864

Campaign Overland Campaign

Location: Virginia
Confederate Commander: Robert E. Lee
Union Commander: Ulysses S. Grant
Confederate Forces Engaged: 52,000
Union Forces Engaged: 100,000
Winner: Confederacy
Casualties: 30,000 (18,000 Union and 12,000 Confederate)**

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#4
Battle of the Wilderness
Date: May 5-7, 1864

Campaign Overland Campaign*

Location: Virginia
Confederate Commander: Robert E. Lee
Union Commander: Ulysses S. Grant
Confederate Forces Engaged: 61,025
Union Forces Engaged: 101,895
Winner: Inconclusive
Casualties: 29,800 (18,400 Union and 11,400 Confederate)**
Note: Casualty sources vary greatly for Wilderness                 

 

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#5

Battle of Chancellorsville*
Date: April 30 - May 6, 1863

Campaign: Chancellorsville Campaign

Location: Virginia
Confederate Commander: Robert E. Lee
Union Commander: Joseph Hooker
Confederate Forces Engaged: 57,352
Union Forces Engaged: 97,382
Winner: Confederacy
Casualties: 24,000 (14,000 Union and 10,000 Confederate)**

Note: Total casualties exclude Marye's Heights and Salem Church

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#6

Battle of Shiloh
Date: April 6-7, 1862

Campaign: Shiloh Campaign*

Location: Tennessee
Confederate Commander: Albert Sidney Johnston and P. G. T. Beauregard
Union Commander: Ulysses S. Grant
Confederate Forces Engaged: 44,968
Union Forces Engaged: 65,085
Winner: Union
Casualties: 23,746 (13,047 Union and 10,699 Confederate)**

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#7
Battle of Stones River*
Date: December 31, 1862 - January 2, 1863

Campaign: Stones River Campaign

Location: Tennessee
Confederate Commander: Braxton Bragg
Union Commander: William S. Rosecrans
Confederate Forces Engaged: 37,739
Union Forces Engaged: 41,400
Winner: Union
Casualties: 23,515 (13,249 Union and 10,266 Confederate)**

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#8

Battle of Antietam (aka Battle of Sharpsburg)
Date: September 16-18, 1862

Campaign: Antietam Campaign, aka Maryland Campaign*

Location: Maryland
Confederate Commander: Robert E. Lee
Union Commander: George B. McClellan
Confederate Forces Engaged: 51,844
Union Forces Engaged: 75,316
Winner: Inconclusive
Casualties: 23,100 (12,400 Union and 10,700 Confederate)**

Note: Total casualties exclude the Battle of South Mountain. Many, however, include the Battle of South Mountain which would add an additional 4,500 casualties

 

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#9
Second Battle of Manassas (aka Second Battle of Bull Run)
Date: August 28-30, 1862

Campaign: Manassas Campaign, aka Northern Virginia Campaign*

Location: Virginia
Confederate Commander: Robert E. Lee
Union Commander: John Pope
Confederate Forces Engaged: 48,527
Union Forces Engaged: 75,696
Winner: Confederacy
Casualties: 22,180 (13,830 Union and 8,350 Confederate)**

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#10
Battle of Vicksburg (aka Siege of Vicksburg)*
Date: May 18 - July 4, 1863

Campaign: Vicksburg Campaign

Location: Mississippi
Confederate Commander: John C. Pemberton
Union Commander: Ulysses S. Grant
Confederate Forces Engaged: Army of Vicksburg
Union Forces Engaged: Army of the Tennessee
Winner: Union
Casualties: 19,233 (10,142 Union and 9,091 Confederate)**

Note: Total casualties exclude Confederate parolees

 

*A skirmish is considered a brisk or minor encounter between small bodies of troops, especially advanced or outlying detachments of opposing armies. Example: There were several skirmishes prior to the Battle of Gettysburg.
A battle or engagement is a prolonged and general conflict pursued to a definite decision between large, organized armed forces. Example: Battle of Chancellorsville.
An action can be a battle or a skirmish. Example: There were several actions or battles during the Gettysburg Campaign.
The term siege is the besetting of a fortified place by an army to compel surrender. A continued attempt to gain possession. Example: Battle of Vicksburg was actually a siege with the objective to compel the Confederate army to surrender.
The term military campaign applies to large scale, long duration, significant military strategy plan incorporating a series of inter-related military operations or battles forming a distinct part of a larger conflict often called a war. Example: Overland Campaign.

 

**Figures only include total battle casualties and exclude total casualties for the respective campaign. Individuals should note that campaigns often involved several battles over prolonged periods. All casualty figures are courtesy National Park Service.

 

American Civil War Battles by States and Region: The Civil War

American Civil War (1861-1865)

 

Fighting commenced on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a United States (Federal) military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina, the first state to secede. South Carolina, however, claimed that Fort Sumter was legally within its (territorial) waters.

During the American Civil War, the North generally named a battle after the closest river, stream or creek, and the South tended to name battles after towns or railroad junctions. Hence the Confederate name Manassas after Manassas Junction, and the Union name Bull Run for the stream Bull Run.

During the first year of the Civil War, the Union assumed control of the Border States and established a naval blockade as both sides raised large armies. In 1862, major bloody battles, such as Shiloh and Antietam, were fought causing massive casualties unprecedented in U.S. military history. In September 1862, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation made the freeing of slaves in the South a war goal, despite opposition from Northern Copperheads who tolerated secession and slavery. 

 

Emancipation reduced the likelihood of intervention from Britain and France on behalf of the Confederacy. In addition, the goal also allowed the Union to recruit African Americans for reinforcements, a resource that the Confederacy did not exploit until it was too late. The Border States and War Democrats initially opposed emancipation, but gradually accepted it as part of total war needed to save the Union.

European immigrants joined the Union Army in large numbers too. 23.4% of all Union soldiers were German-Americans; about 216,000 were born in Germany. In the East, Confederate General Robert E. Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia and experienced a series of victories against the Army of the Potomac. However, Lee's best general, Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, was killed at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863.

Lee's invasion of the North was repulsed at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania in July 1863; Lee, however, managed an orderly retreat to Virginia. The Union Navy captured the port of New Orleans in 1862, and Ulysses S. Grant seized control of the Mississippi River by capturing Vicksburg, Mississippi, in July 1863, thus splitting the Confederacy. See also: Anaconda Plan: The United States Naval Plan of Divide and Conquer and Turning Points of the American Civil War.

 

More than 10,500 battles and skirmishes occurred during the Civil War; 384 engagements (3.7 percent) were identified as the principal battles and classified according to their historical significance.

The war produced an estimated 1,030,000 casualties (3% of the U.S. population, which today would equate to nearly 9,000,000 souls), including approximately 620,000 deaths—two-thirds by disease. Let's take a moment and think about it on today's terms. To put it into perspective, 3% of the U.S. population equates to the combined population of the present-day states of New Hampshire, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, South Dakota, Alaska, North Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming. See also American Civil War History, Facts, and Statistics.

The war accounted for more casualties than all other U.S. wars combined. Presently, the causes of the war, the reasons for its outcome, and even the name of the war itself are subjects of lingering controversy. The main result of the war was the restoration of the Union. Also, approximately 4 million slaves were freed in 1865. Based on 1860 United States census figures, 8% of all white males aged 13 to 43 died in the war, including 6% in the North and an extraordinary 18% in the South. See also: American Civil War Battles, Casualties, & Statistics and Organization of Union and Confederate Armies.

 

Major Civil War Battles and Battlefields:

 

Ten Bloodiest and Costliest Battles of the American Civil War

 

Civil War Casualties and Killed:

Total Union and Confederate Casualties

Civil War Killed and Mortally Wounded

Civil War Casualties and Fatalities

American Civil War Casualties, Fatalities and Statistics 

Civil War Turning Points:

Civil War Turning Point: A List of Major and Pivotal Turning Points

Turning Points of the Civil War

First Battle of Manassas: A Major Turning Point? 

England, France, and US Civil War:

The Trent Affair

Preventing Diplomatic Recognition of the Confederacy

American Civil War and International Diplomacy

Last Civil War Battle and Final Surrender:

Last Battle and Final Surrender of the Civil War: A History

Order of Surrendering Confederate Forces: American Civil War

Surrender of General and Cherokee Chief Stand Watie

The Last Shot

Confederate Soldier Describes Exchanging the Last Confederate Flag of Truce with General William T. Sherman

General Robert E. Lee and General U. S. Grant: The Meeting and Conversation at Appomattox Court House

 

Civil War Reconstruction:

American Civil War Aftermath

Reconstruction Era, Military Rule, Civil War

American Civil War Reconstruction

Civil War Reconstruction Era: Amendments and Acts

Reconstruction Era and Acts Timeline

American Civil War Reconstruction Era and Civil Rights

13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

 14th Amendment

15th Amendment

Freedmen's Bureau

Black Code and Black Codes

Sherman's Special Field Orders, No. 15

Special Field Orders, No. 15 and 40 Acres and a Mule

African Americans and American Civil War History

American Civil War