How many soldiers died or were wounded during the war?

Answer 1

In the US Civil War quite a few. Units were smaller and communications on the battlefield were difficult - couriers, sometimes flag signals was about all that could be done to send orders to subordinates. A general had to be close to the action to oversee his troops, and was thus exposed to danger.

With radios and field telephones by WWII a general could stay some distance to the rear, and were much less likely to become casualties. The two highest-ranking American generals killed in WWII were Lieutenant General Leslie McNair and Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., both three star generals. Buckner was killed on Okinawa by a random Japanese artillery shell while commanding the US 10th Army. McNair was killed by friendly fire. McNair was observing the massive preattack aerial bombardment for Operation Cobra, an effort to break out of the Normandy beachhead. For this attack the heavy, four-engine bombers were diverted from bombing deep behind the lines to pulverize the German front lines confronting the attackers. The Army wanted the heavies to come in flying along a road and bomb only to the south side of it. For its own reasons the Air Force sent the planes in perpendicular to the road. The first waves dropped where they were supposed to, but the wind was blowing back over the American lines. Subsequent waves began dropping into all the smoke from earlier waves and the barrage crept back over the Americans, killing numerous troops and General McNair, and destroying the American attack before it even got started.

Another excellent general killed was Maurice Rose, commanding the 3rd Armored Division. Rose was one of the highest ranking American Jewish officers, and a fine tank commander. He was in his Jeep with just a driver and they got lost, and ran into some Germans. One of the Germans shot General Rose - probably not knowing he was an American two-star general, commanding a division, whom his intelligence officers would love to interrogate. The driver got away. This was less than six weeks before the Germans surrendered.

Another was William O. Darby. Darby, as a Colonel, had created the modern Army Rangers, reviving a name from the French and Indian War. He led the Rangers until Anzio, when they were virtually wiped out, except for the single battalion sent to England before Anzio, to take part in the D-Day landings in Normandy. Darby was promoted to Brigadier General (one star) and was Assistant Division Commander of the 10th Mountain Division when a single German artillery shell found him on a mountaintop in Italy, a week before the Germans surrendered.

Answer 2

According to Wikipedia over 400, 000 US troops died during WW 2 and over 53, 000 in the Korean War, most of them were combat deaths.