This article contains a list of battles with most United States military fatalities, in terms of American deaths.
Introduction
This article lists battles and campaigns in which the number of U.S. soldiers killed was higher than 1,000. The battles and campaigns that reached that number of deaths in the field are so far limited to the
American Civil War,
World War I,
World War II,
Korean War, and one campaign during the
Vietnam War (the
Tet Offensive from January 30 to September 23, 1968). The campaign that resulted in the most US military deaths was the
Battle of Normandy (June 6 to August 25, 1944) in which 29,204 soldiers were killed fighting against
Nazi Germany.
The bloodiest single day in the history of the United States military is either June 6, 1944, with 2,500 soldiers killed during the
Invasion of Normandy on
D-Day, or September 12th, 1918, at the start of the
Battle of Saint Mihiel, with over 2,500 dead (however, this exact figure is unverifiable because of poor documentation). The third-highest single-day toll was the
Battle of Antietam, with 2,108 dead.
The deadliest single-day battle in
American history, if all engaged armies are considered, is the
Battle of Antietam with 3,675 killed, including both United States and Confederate soldiers (total casualties for both sides were 22,717 dead, wounded, or missing Union and Confederate soldiers September 17, 1862).[1][A 1][2]
The origins of the U.S. military can be traced to the Americans' fight for independence from their former colonial power, Great Britain, in the
American Revolutionary War (1775–1783). The three bloodiest conflicts have been
American Civil War (1861–1865),
World War I (1917–1918), and
World War II (1941–1945 for declared American involvement). Other significant conflicts involving the United States ordered by casualties include the
Korean War (1950–1953), the
Vietnam War (1964–1973), the
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021), and various conflicts in the Middle East.
Scope and definitions
The definition of "battle" as a concept in
military science has varied with the changes in the organization, employment, and technology of military forces. Before the 20th century, "battle" usually meant a military clash over a small area, lasting a few days at most and often just one day—such as the
Battle of Waterloo, which began and ended on 18 June 1815 on a field a few kilometers across.
Especially in 20th-century conflicts, "battle" has meant "
military campaign"—larger and longer
military operations, on the operational or even strategic level—such as the
Battle of the Atlantic, fought for several years (1939–1945) over about a fifth of the Earth's surface.
Since both types of "battles" are not usefully comparable in many ways, including casualty comparisons, this article is divided into two sections, one for battle in the older, more restricted sense and one for campaigns, many of which are also called battles.
There are actions at the margins that can be reasonably assigned to either list. For instance, the
Battle of Spotsylvania lasted 14 days, but the main part was fought on a small field (less than three kilometers on a side), and in this way being more in the nature of a
siege (a military action typically of long duration but in covering a relatively small area). Like the similar
Battle of Cold Harbor, also part of the
Overland Campaign, it is included in this article on the Battles list. The
Battle of Saint-Mihiel, lasting only about four days, but on a larger field (roughly 12 kilometers by 25 kilometers), is also included on the Battles list.
The term casualty in warfare can often be confusing. It often does not refer to those who are killed on the battlefield; rather, it refers to those who can no longer fight. That can include disabled by injuries, disabled by
psychological trauma,
captured,
deserted, or
missing. A casualty is only a soldier who is no longer available for the immediate battle or campaign, the major consideration in combat, and the number of casualties is simply the number of members of a unit who are not available for duty. For example, during the
Seven Days Battles during the
American Civil War (June 25 to July 1, 1862) there were 5,228 killed, 23,824 wounded and 7,007 missing or taken prisoners for a total of 36,059 casualties.[3][A 2] The word casualty has been used in a military context since at least 1513.[4] In this article the numbers killed refer to those
killed in action, killed by
disease or someone who died from their wounds.
^Operation VICTOR IV, the seizure of Mindanao's
Zamboanga Peninsula occurred at the same time as Battle of Mindanao. 221 killed and 665 wounded on Zamboanga Peninsula[55] 820 killed and 2,880 wounded on E. Mindanao[56]
^Ecker, Richard E. (2005). Korean Battle Chronology: Unit-by-Unit United States Casualty Figures and Medal of Honor Citations. McFarland. ISBN 0786419806. Page 83.
^Ecker, Richard E. (2004), Battles of the Korean War: A Chronology, with Unit-by-Unit United States Casualty Figures & Medal of Honor Citations, McFarland & Company, ISBN 978-0-7864-1980-7. Page 16 and 20.
^Ecker, Richard E. (2004), Battles of the Korean War: A Chronology, with Unit-by-Unit United States Casualty Figures & Medal of Honor Citations, McFarland & Company, ISBN 978-0-7864-1980-7. Page 6.
^Ecker, Richard E. (2004), Battles of the Korean War: A Chronology, with Unit-by-Unit United States Casualty Figures & Medal of Honor Citations, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, ISBN 978-0-7864-1980-7. Page 29, 31, 39.
^Ecker, Richard E. (2005). Korean Battle Chronology: Unit-by-Unit United States Casualty Figures and Medal of Honor Citations. McFarland. ISBN 0786419806.
^Hard to get exact numbers because post-World War II history books about the 1941-42 Philippines campaign focus mostly on the Bataan Death March and brutality in POW camps and don't give exact numbers on the KIA during the actual Battle of Bataan. Usually ~10,000 U.S. forces killed is given for the KIA in the actual Battle of Bataan. On Corregidor there were ~1,000 KIA. There were thousands more sailors and airmen killed in action during the 1941-42 Philippines Campaign on sunken U.S. Navy ships and hundreds of destroyed USAAF airplanes from December 1941 to May 1942.
^Ecker, Richard E. (2005). Korean Battle Chronology: Unit-by-Unit United States Casualty Figures and Medal of Honor Citations. McFarland. ISBN 0786419806. Page 73-105.
^Ecker, Richard E. (2005). Korean Battle Chronology: Unit-by-Unit United States Casualty Figures and Medal of Honor Citations. McFarland. ISBN 0786419806. Page 93-105.
^10 U.S. Navy ships were sunk, resulting in 1,973 killed in action. 24 U.S. Army soldiers of the
Lost Battalion were killed in action. Unknown number of USAAF airmen flying P-40 fighters were also killed during this campaign.
^Eggenberger, D. "An Encyclopedia of Battles: Accounts of Over 1,560 Battles from 1479 B.C. to the Present". Courier Corporation. 2012.
ISBN9780486142012
Burke, Patrick; Roth, Jack (2014). Ghost Soldiers of Gettysburg: Searching for Spirits on America's Most Famous Battlefield. Llewellyn Worldwide.
ISBN9780738741352. - Total pages: 264
Corson, Captain William quoting Danny S. Parker's article 'War's Last Eruption' is Military History Magazine: Great Battles, September 1992, pp. 42–9. 3 (June 1995).
Captured in Hatten: Captain William Corson's speech (Speech). Retrieved November 13, 2017.{{
cite speech}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
link)
Chant, Christopher (2016).
"Operation Undertone". codenames.info. Retrieved November 22, 2017.
Hearn, Chester G. (2007). Marines: An Illustrated History : the U.S. Marine Corps from 1775 to the 21st Century. Zenith Press.
ISBN9780760332115. - Total pages: 192
Smith, Larry (2009). Iwo Jima: World War II Veterans Remember the Greatest Battle of the Pacific.
W. W. Norton & Company.
ISBN9780393285635. - Total pages: 384
Smith, Robert Ross (2005). Triumph in the Philippines: The War in the Pacific. University Press of the Pacific.
ISBN9781410224958. - Total pages: 796
Tucker, Spencer C. (2009). The Encyclopedia of the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars: A Political, Social, and Military History, Volume 1.
ABC-CLIO.
ISBN9781851099511. - Total pages: 370