What Percentage of Soldiers were Killed and Wounded in Mid-Eighteenth-Century Battles?

British reenactors attacked by continental dragoons

Dear Reader,

I thought I would follow up my previous post with a corollary: what percentage of soldiers were killed and wounded in eighteenth-century battles? Being an eighteenth-century soldier was a risky business, and not just from death on the battlefield. More soldiers perished from disease and inclement conditions than died from enemy fire on the battlefield. Indeed, this is a common feature of most pre-twentieth century wars, and Andrew Bamford has just published an excellent book on the subject in the Napoleonic era, entitled Sickness Suffering and the Sword: The British Regiment on Campaign 1808-1815.  Between 1740 and 1783, how many soldiers became casualties on the battlefield?

I hope this preliminary post will be interesting for any military history studying the collection of casualty data for this era. However, as with the previous post, I produce this mainly for reenactors and wargames, in a hope that their displays and simulations of eighteenth-century combat might be as accurate as possible. Like many wargamers and reenactors, I imagine, I have been party to events and scenarios where one side takes more than 50% casualties on a regular basis. How accurate are these representations? As in the previous post, I will aggregate data from a large number of battles in the era, and present the data in a number of different arrangements. In assembling this data, I examined 69 battles across the mid-eighteenth century.

It should also be noted: Christopher Duffy has already presented much of the data for the European Seven Years' War in two books: his second edition of The Army of Frederick the Great, and By Force of Arms: The Austrian Army in the Seven Years' War, Vol II.  In the case of the European Seven Years' War, I am truly standing on the shoulders of a scholarly giant. In terms of the statistics, I have included as losses men who were killed, wounded, missing, and captured on the battlefield. Large surrenders like Yorktown, Bennington, or Maxen only include soldiers who were captured in the course of the fighting, not in surrenders after the battle.

And a final note: these were all real men, with lives and hopes. To counteract the faceless nature of these statistics, read this letter from Frantz Reiß:

"all the while I stood in such danger that I cannot thank God enough for my health. In the very first cannon shots {my friend} Krumpholtz took a cannon ball through his head and the half of it was blown away, he was standing just beside me, and the brains and skull of Krumpholtz sprayed into my face and the gun was blown to pieces from my shoulder, but I, praise God, was uninjured. Now, dear wife, I cannot possibly describe what happened, for the shooting on both sides was so great, that no-one could hear a word of what anyone was saying, and we didn’t see and hear just a thousand bullets, but many thousands.  But as we got into the afternoon, the enemy took flight and God gave us the victory. And as we came forward into the field, we saw men lying, not just one, but 3 or 4 lying on top of each other, some dead with their heads gone, others short of both legs, or their arms missing, in short, it was a horrifying sight. Now, dear child, just think of how we must have felt, we who had been led meekly to the slaughterhouse without the faintest inkling of what was to come.”[1]

Total Average: 

Average percentage of losses suffered in combat, Europe and North America, 1740-1783:
(Battle sample size: 69) 14.552% 

Average by War 

War of Austrian Succession 

(Battle sample size: 9) 15.811%

Seven Years' War in Europe and North America

(Battle sample size: 33) 15.403%

American War of Independence

(Battle sample size: 27) 13.093%

La Pegna's depiction of the attack at Hochkirch

Average by Theater of the Seven Years' War

War in Central Europe (Brandenburg, East Prussia, Saxony, and Silesia)

(Battle sample size: 18) 20.522%

War in Western Germany (Hessen and Hanover)

(Battle sample size: 10) 9.11% 

War in North America (Canada and the Ohio Country)

(Battle sample size: 5) 19.4%

La Pegna depiction of Finck Surrendering at Maxen

Average percentage of loss by Nation/Army in the Seven Years' War (Highest to Lowest)

British(Outside Europe): 24.56%

Prussians: 22.8%

Russians:  21.92%

Austrians: 18.53%

French (Outside Europe): 14.4%

French (in Europe): 10.6%

Allies(British/Hessians/Hanoverians/et al in Europe): 7.58%

Don Troiani's Reimagining of Oriskany 

Average Loss by Armies in the American War of Independence (Highest to Lowest):

Americans and their allies: 16.80%

British and their allies: 12.09%

Notable Battles: 

Rossbach: Prussians 2.4% Franco-Imperials 24.1% : Average 13.3%

Zorndorf: Prussians 35.5% Russians 42.7% (highest  loss percentage of the SYW): Average 39.1%

Oriskany: Americans 55.4% (highest loss percentage in 18th century) British 18.6%: Average 37.0%
Eutaw Springs: Americans 26.3% British 44.1% : Average 35.2%

A Few Thoughts: 

The above data certainly surprised me in several areas. First of all, engagements like Zorndorf or Oriskany (which was much smaller but with a comparable percentage lost) did occur, but they were the exception, rather than the rule. On average, about 14.5% of men became casualties, and includes killed, wounded, missing, and captured on the battlefield. I was shocked by the relatively low casualties on the western front of the Seven Years' War in Europe and by the relatively high casualties suffered by the Americans in contrast to the British during the American War of Independence. I should say, the largest British losses in terms of percentage come near the end of the war, at places like Cowpens, Guilford Court House, Hobkirk's Hill, and Eutaw Springs. Finally, looking at the data for the Seven Years' War and American War of Independence, it does not appear as though a percentage of soldiers lost has any direct bearing on the outcome of the war. 

So, losing 40 men in a reenactment of 100 is possible, but not encouraged. Often, these losses were concentrated in a small number of units, such as the Royal Highland Regiment at Carillon, Regiment von Itzenplitz at Hochkirch, or the 1st Maryland Regiment at Long Island. So, while having a unit be destroyed or beaten up rather badly is accurate, taking above 40% losses for an army should not be. Likewise, wargamers should be able to quickly play battles in which armies are broken as a result of losses, but not destroyed by enemy fire.

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Thanks for Reading,

Alex Burns 

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[1]Hans Bleckwenn, eds. Preussiche Soldatenbriefe Mit Einer Einführung Von Hans Bleckwenn, (Onsnabruck, 1982) 29.