Over two percent of the population of America died in the Civil War.  Yes, many of them were the young and helpless or the old and infirm, but the losses amongst the healthy young men were horrible.  Fully ten percent of young Northern men died in the long war.  But thirty percent of young Southern men never came home.  An entire generation of our best and brightest was decimated or worse.  They say that Lincoln wept when he saw the dead.  I understand why.