The United States has been in a number of wars throughout its history, but which one actually claimed the most lives? You do have a range of contenders to choose from, and most people would select World War I or II, or perhaps even Vietnam as the one with the most deaths.
However, if you did choose any of those options, then you would be very, very wrong.
Instead, the war that claimed the most American lives was the American Civil War. In fact, it claimed far more lives than the other wars all added together, which is certainly something that is going to surprise a number of people.
Overall, it is believed that as many as 618,000 people died during the Civil War, and this accounted for approximately 2% of the entire population at the time, which really is a huge number. The other wars just do not even come close to that number of deaths. However, it should be added that a number of the deaths were caused by disease, and it was not helped along by the way in which society had been negatively affected by the war, so even though they may not have been caused by being in battle, the deaths can still be attributed to the fighting.