Casualties
Casualties.Casualties—soldiers killed or rendered unable to fight by enemy weapons, disease, or accident—reduce combat strength and sap the morale of those personnel who remain fit for service. The outcomes of battles, campaigns, and even wars have often been determined by the casualties suffered by one side or the other.
Casualties may be classified as either battle or nonbattle. Battle casualties include personnel killed in action, wounded in action, captured, or missing in action; nonbattle casualties include those killed or disabled by disease or accident, as well as those incapacitated by psychiatric illnesses (known variously as shell shock, battle fatigue, or Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder) induced by the stresses of military service.
Since 1775, weapons have become more lethal, and with increased lethality has come an increase in both the number of casualties and the severity of wounds. Before 1850, about half of all battle...
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