General Pershing WWI casualty list

The General Pershing WWI casualty list was a list of casualties released to the media by the American military during World War I. Newspapers like the Evening Public Ledger would title the list's summary, General Pershing Reports or Pershing Reports.[1] The name General Pershing refers to General John Pershing, who was in command of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), the expeditionary force of the United States during World War I. While fighting the Germans 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 (MIA) and soldiers wounded in action (WIA). These numbers would be tabulated by the American military and then released to the American news media.[1]

Front page of the Evening Public Ledger, April 3, 1918, with General John Pershing

Rows of headstones line the grounds of Brookwood American Cemetery and Memorial, United Kingdom

District of Columbia War Memorial, West Potomac Park, Washington, DC

U.S. soldiers run past the remains of two German soldiers toward a bunker

After the war, the real numbers were mined from the military bureaucracy as opposed to the fog of war. During World War I, 4,734,991 served in the American military.[2] There were a total of 116,516 deaths, with 53,402 of those occurring in battle.[2] Another 63,114 died in accidental deaths, but around 45,000 died due to the 1918 outbreak of Spanish flu (30,000 died before they even reached France).[3][4] Of those that survived the war, 204,002 were wounded in some way.[2]