In Memoriam
Between the War for Independence and Operation Iraqi Freedom, the armed
forces of the United States have participated in twenty-one principal wars and in numerous
smaller conflicts and operations. In each of these American men and women have paid a high
price for the nation's freedom, selflessly sacrificing life or limb for an honorable cause.
Principal sources of information for the figures, explanatory text and
illustrations appearing below include the National Archives and Records Administration; U.S.
Navy Historical Center; Department of Defense; Department of Veterans Affairs; and The Oxford
Companion to American Military History, from which all quotations are taken.
Revolutionary War (War for Independence), 1775 - 1783
The War for Independence, when viewed in proportion to contemporary population
and wealth, destroyed more lives and property than any American war since then, with the
exception of the Civil
War. Except for the Vietnam conflict, it also lasted longer than all other American wars. While
Americans often remember the Revolution in relatively straightforward terms-as a struggle for
independence between the American patriots on the one hand and the British mother country on
the other-the war was in fact much more complex. Fighting against the American patriots were
British and German regular troops, Indians allied with the British, and American militias loyal
to the British crown. Roughly forty percent of the population remained uncommitted to either
side.
Fighting on the patriot side were allied Indian tribes as well as French
military forces, who supported the rebel cause both in the United States and in Europe by
engaging the British in a colonial fight for independence that ultimately became worldwide in
scope. British officers who had served in the colonies during the French and Indian War
(1754-1763) believed the Americans would prove to be "leaderless, lazy, and militarily
ineffectual." They expected high rates of desertion among the American forces, and
"assumed a lack of toughness in the rebels--who they thought--would collapse at the
first application of force." In this, of course, the British were mistaken.
We still remember the Revolutionary War for its many outstanding examples of American heroism
and perseverance, perhaps the most famous of which remains the harrowing winter encampment at
Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where the Continental Army under George Washington suffered terribly
under conditions of extreme privation. Having been recently defeated by the British at the
Battle of the Brandywine, Philadelphia, Germantown and then the Delaware River, Washington's
bedraggled army continued to train throughout the winter and emerged in the spring "tougher
and better organized than ever."
Fought on land by regular, militia and guerrilla forces, and at sea (with
the French navy providing invaluable assistance to the Americans on the Atlantic as well as
the Mediterranean), the War for Independence wore out all its principal participants long
before the fighting came to an end in the Spring of 1782. American victory--and with it
independence--seemed constantly in jeopardy, and yet by war's end, the British government
faced "severe financial peril and a public sick of war."
American Casualties, Revolutionary War
| Branch of Service |
Battle Deaths |
Non-Mortal Wounds |
| Army |
4,044 |
6,004 |
| Navy |
342 |
114 |
| Marines |
49 |
70 |
| Total |
4,435 |
6,188 |
