Civil war why death toll high?

Answer 1

Battle strategy had not kept pace with development of weaponry. It seemed to be "line up and give them a big target" at that time. A 69 caliber musket ball would cause a large, gaping wound and usually remained in the body, unlike the modern 6.5 mm military round shich typically results in small entry and exit wounds. And of course, there were no bullet-proof vests or other body armor. Antibiotics (and anesthesia) were not available, so infection made even a minor wound life-threatening. Sanitation in the field was poor and more soldiers on both sides died of disease than from battle wounds. Sanitary conditins and medical treatment in prisoner of war camps was even worse and in some less than half of the detainees survived.

Disease was still the number one killer. Even outside of wounds festering into life threatening conditions (Stonewall Jackson actually died of pneumonia), other diseases were rampant....

ONe reason was that the generals were trained in Napoleonic tactics, which were based in older, shorter range weapons. When infantry muskets were ineffective past 100 yards, it made sense to line up, march close, then charge, as the enemy wouldn't have enough time to fire effectively. The Civil War saw the introduction of rifled muskets with an effective range of 400+ yards, so lots of ground had to be covered under fire. A similar situation occured with artillery.

Also, the many men, and some officers had little training, or worse, were there for political gain. This led to the complete bungling of assignments and much loss of life, sort of like if one of us was suddenly given 11 people and told to win a football game.

Further, as has been mentioned, medical care was terrible. There were not enough doctors, they had no idea about germs, and most medicine did nothing but give you diarrhea.

Answer 2

Most men died in the Civil War because of disease, but the battles had high casualties because of many reasons like more accurate rifles due to rifled barrels and bullets and the large amounts of men fighting in the battles.

Many people will say its because they fought in lines and fired back and forth but actually this was only used allot at the start of the war but later many marched into battle in formations but the battles were so chaotic that the formations came apart and men fought from cover all over the place. Also many battles had high casualties because they would many times charge the defenders trying to break the defence and push the defenders back which didn't work well.

Answer 3

Because the professional soldiers in the Regular Army were very small in number, the Army relied upon draftees and volunteers, most of whom served for very short periods of time. They were not professional soldiers, nor were they well-trained. This can also be said for many of the officers leading them.

Answer 4

1. military improvements such as the rifle

2. medical incompetence such as hygiene

3. americans were killing americans, thus all the soldiers who died were americans.