The General Pershing WWI casualty list was a list of

casualties A casualty, as a term in military usage, is a person in military service, combatant or non-combatant, who becomes unavailable for duty due to any of several circumstances, including death, injury, illness, capture or desertion. In civilian usag ...

released to the media by the

American military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. Newspapers like the ''

Evening Public Ledger The ''Public Ledger'' was a daily newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, published from March 25, 1836, to January 1942. Its motto was "Virtue Liberty and Independence". For a time, it was Philadelphia's most popular newspaper, but circulation de ...

'' (''EPL'') would title the list's summary, ''General Pershing Reports'' or ''Pershing Reports''. The name ''General Pershing'' refers to

General John Pershing General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing (September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948), nicknamed "Black Jack", was a senior United States Army officer. He served most famously as the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the We ...

, who was in command of the

American Expeditionary Forces The American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.) was a formation of the United States Army on the Western Front of World War I. The A. E. F. was established on July 5, 1917, in France under the command of General John J. Pershing. It fought along ...

(AEF), the expeditionary force of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

during

. While fighting the

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

on the Western Front the AEF would take daily casualties in the form of those killed in action (KIA), those who died from their wounds, those who died from disease, accidental deaths, soldiers

missing in action Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire. They may have been killed, wounded, captured, ex ...

(MIA) and soldiers

wounded in action Wounded in Action (WIA) describes combatants who have been wounded while fighting in a combat zone during wartime, but have not been killed. Typically, it implies that they are temporarily or permanently incapable of bearing arms or continuing ...

(WIA). These numbers would be tabulated by the American military and then released to the American news media. After the war, the real numbers were mined from the military bureaucracy as opposed to the

fog of war The fog of war (german: links=no, Nebel des Krieges) is the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations. The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, ...

. During World War I, 4,734,991 served in the American military. There were a total of 116,516 deaths, with 53,402 of those occurring in battle. Another 63,114 died of noncombat reasons, including about 45,000 due to the 1918 outbreak of

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case wa ...

; 30,000 soldiers died before they even reached France. Of those that survived the war, 204,002 were wounded in some way.

The list

One of the publications that printed this data along with the names who were reported dead and wounded was the ''

'', a

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

published from March 25, 1836, to January 1942. On November 5, 1917, the ''EPL'' published a story with the headline "Casualty List In First Action Thrills Nation". In the article it listed the first three American deaths in the war:

McLean County, Kentucky McLean County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,152. Its county seat is Calhoun. McLean is a prohibition or dry county. McLean County is part of the Owensboro, KY Metropolitan S ...

's Corporal James Bethel Gresham, Private

Merle Hay Merle David Hay (July 20, 1896 – November 3, 1917) was the first Iowa serviceman and perhaps the first American serviceman to die in World War I, along with Corporal James Bethel Gresham of Evansville, Indiana and Thomas Enright of Pittsb ...

from Glidden, Iowa, and Private

Thomas Enright Thomas Francis Enright was the first Pennsylvanian serviceman and perhaps the first American serviceman to die in World War I, along with Corporal James Bethel Gresham of Evansville, Indiana and Private Merle Hay of Glidden, Iowa. Early life ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

, Pennsylvania. They had been killed in a skirmish on November 3, 1917. In addition to the three Americans KIA the casualty list printed that five were WIA and twelve soldiers were MIA. Initially, the casualty lists were published with casualty's name and their address. From March 9, 1918, the list was "denatured" or stripped of home addresses. On April 2, 1918, the American military prevented the publication of all casualty lists from the American War Department decreeing that the only source for casualty lists would be the American command headquarters in France.

April 1919

March 1919

February 1919

January 1919

December 1918

November 1918

October 1918

September 1918

August 1918

July 1918

June 1918

May 1918

April 1918

March 1918

February 1918

January 1918

December 1917

November 1917

Bibliography

Notes References * * - Total pages: 38 * - Total pages: 288 * * * * * * *{{cite journal , last1=Wevera, first1=Peter C Wevera, last2=van Bergenc, first2=Leo , date=June 27, 2014, pmc = 4181817 , title =Death from 1918 pandemic influenza during the First World War: a perspective from personal and anecdotal evidence , journal=

Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses ''Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering virology, published by John Wiley & Sons for the International Society for Influenza and other Respiratory Virus Diseases. As of 2018, the editor is Benjam ...

, volume=8, issue=5, pages=538–546, publisher =

United States National Library of Medicine The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. Its ...

, doi=10.1111/irv.12267, pmid=24975798 Lists of battles

Battles A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

War casualties