The Civil War had to be the "times that try men's souls."

Wars are terrible things, but the most utterly hopeless and all-around bad time in US history would have definitely been the Great Depression. The nation went from being about on the same level of prosperity as we see today (minus all the technology of course), and it dropped way way down. Starvation was widespread and almost nobody had work or money or much of anything at all.

Right now.

America is dropping into the abyss faster than a 16oz sinker. What makes it so trying for a few of us, is that we see the how and why, and are powerless to stop it. Most Americans fall into one of 3 groups. Those that are working to bring it down and those that they control, those that see whats happening but can't effect the changes needed to stop it, and the other 80% that are nothing more than sheeple who parrot whatever agenda their particular group is putting forth if they bother to do anything at all.

what about WWI? We had to cope with the obvious war, but also a flu pandemic.

The Flu Epidemic came after the war, it was brought over from Europe by troops who were returning home after the war.

The US civil war by 10 miles.

It caused over a million military casulties and something like 800,000 people died. Major urban centers where in ruins. The country was ready to collapse into oblivion.

By far the most tramatic event in US history.

No other disastor, social upheaval or war begins to approach it.

The Civil War caused over HALF a million casualties, not a million.

Bugfatty was closer to the true figures.

His figure of a million casualties (wounded) and 800,000 (deaths) fall more closely with the estimates which are on record with the war department and other historical museum/battlefield sites.

I realize that his posting looks like he was saying that there were one million military deaths etc - but the figures I have found are more in line with the way I posted them.

If someone can come up with better sources, I would be interested in checking them out. I disremember where I found these figures - I am somewhat interested in the Civil War and looked up information about various battles etc and came across battlefield figures and as I remember, the above numbers sound close to the correct ones.

Bottom line - casualties were high on both sides with the south suffering the higher numbers.

Originally Posted by Damien435

The Civil War caused over HALF a million casualties, not a million.

http://www.civil-war.ws/casualties/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Army#Casualties

My term for casualties is a combination of wounded + dead. Which comes to around 1,147,954.

With 678,000 military deaths + 50,000 to 100,000 American civilians.

Sorry, I read it as 1,000,000 military casualties and 800,000 civilian deaths. I was going to say 670,000 deaths but decided to be as general as possible.