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From: sschaff@roc.SLAC.Stanford.EDU (Stephen F. Schaffner)
Subject: Re: religion
Message-ID: <D7K5Gx.Jt6@unixhub.SLAC.Stanford.EDU>
Followup-To: talk.origins
Sender: news@unixhub.SLAC.Stanford.EDU
Organization: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
References: <D7EsAE.5q3@intruder.daytonoh.attgis.com> <3ngnbe$95h@post.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 21:10:08 GMT
Lines: 34

In article <3ngnbe$95h@post.gsfc.nasa.gov>,
James G. Acker <jgacker@news.gsfc.nasa.gov> wrote:
>David E. Weldon, Ph.D. (David.E.Weldon@DaytonOH.ATTGIS.COM) wrote:
>
>: Not to mention disease, pestulence, and short life expectancies.  But, at
>: least people didn't kill each other like they do now--maybe it stemmed from a
>: greater respect for life or maybe from a more primitive technology.  But then
>: more Americans died in our Civil War that have died in all the wars since
>: then.
>
>	Is this final statistic true?  I am fairly certain that what 
>is meant here is that the % of the U.S. population that died due to 
>participation in Civil War military activities (includes diseases that 
>ravaged the armies, causing 2-3x more deaths than battle) was much 
>greater than for subsequent wars.  I remember seeing a schematic 
>illustration at one of the battlefield visitor centers to this effect,
>that although absolute numbers of casualties were greater for WWI and 
>WWII than the Civil War, they were a much smaller percentage of the 
>total U.S. population, by a big factor.  

I believe the original statement is correct.  The total number of deaths 
caused by the U.S. Civil War (roughly 600,000) is larger than the 
combined U.S. losses in later wars (WWI: 125,000; WWII: 300,000; 
Korea: 35,000; Vietnam: 50+ thousand).  Incidentally, WWII was the 
first U.S. war in which battle deaths exceeded deaths caused by disease.  

[Followups restricted to talk.origins.]


-- 
Steve Schaffner   sschaff@slac.stanford.edu
Opinions expressed may be mine, and  ||Immediate assurance is an excellent sign
may not be those of SLAC,            ||of probable lack of insight into the 
Stanford University, or the DOE.     ||topic.            Josiah Royce
