Memorial Day honors the estimated 1 million soldiers and sailors who have died in service to their country in the nearly 250 years since Americans fought to win their freedom from King George III of Britain.

The number killed in U.S. wars and conflicts since differs, with many attempts to record the toll of war.

The Department of Defense keeps the official count of those killed in the Defense Casualty Analysis System.

The best estimate is that just over 1 million soldiers and sailors have died in service to their country. The tally begins before the country itself, with the musket fire on Lexington Green on April 19, 1775. The is still running, rising from two decades of the “war on terror” spawned by the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in suburban Washington, D.C.

The running tally begins before the country itself, with the “shot heard round the world” by Minutemen on the Lexington Green on April 19, 1775. It would be 442 days until the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776. The war’s end would take over a year from the final shots in the Battle of Yorktown in 1781. Cornwallis and his 8,000 troops were trapped with their backs against the Atlantic Ocean, with a largely French navy bottling up any harbors the Royal Navy might attempt to use to evacuate its forces. Cornwallis signed the Articles of Capitulation given by Gen. George Washington at Moore House on October 19. Loyalists began the long journey to British-ruled Canada, while the remaining British troops – including Hessians from Germany – marched to ports for the trip back to Europe. The last ships sailed from Savannah and Charleston at the end of 1782. But the war’s official end would stretch into the next year. What began with musket fire in Massachusetts ended with pens in France, as the Treaty of Paris was

– including Hessians from Germany – sailed from Savannah and Charleston at the end of 1782. .official end wouldn’t come until the signing of the Treaty of Paris on Sept. 3, 1783.

The total is increased with deaths in the

The Pentagon count does not include the estimated 300,000 or more Americans killed in the Civil War while serving with Confederate forces.

Many totals of American Civil War dead comingle the casualties as a tally of a national fratricide. But as combatants who took arms up against the United States, the rebels do not appear in official Department of Defense casualty totals.

The first American soldiers counted are the estimated 4,435 who died in the Revolutionary War, beginning in 1775. There’s no official number of total Americans who fought for Independence between 1775 and 1783, but a footnote says “estimates range from 184,000 to 250,000.”

Unlike later wars, there is also no breakout of how many died in direct combat from musket volleys, cannon fire, swords, bayonets or by hand. What are now known as KIA – “Killed In Action” are included with deaths from disease, accidents, lack of food and water or freezing at Valley Forge. Estimates on the number of those with “wounds not mortal” are recorded – 6,188.

The Defense Department count for the Revolutionary War does divide the deaths by “branch” of service: 4,044 are “Army,” 342 are “Navy” and 49 are “Marines.”

With the War of 1812, the nation having been founded 36 years before, estimates of total troops involved appear. Of the 286,730 Americans who served, some 2,260 died. Troop strength is estimated from records of the “Commissioner of Pensions.”

The Mexican War of 1846-48 records 78,718 troops and 13,283 dead. It’s here that the offen staggering cost of organizing and maintaining troops at war comes into focus. Of the dead, just 1,733 are “battle deaths.” The remaining 11,550 are “other deaths” – and all Army soldiers. The Navy recorded one death – in battle. The Marines counted 11 dead – all in battle.

The largest number are the 405,399 who died in World War II.

The Civil War killed over 600,000 on Union and Confederate sides, but the Pentagon counts only Union killed of 364,511. Confederates killed in the war are considered enemy combatants fighting the United States.

Authoritative statistics for the Confederate forces are not available. Estimates of the number who served range from 600,000 to 1,500,000. The final report of the Provost Marshal General, 1863-1866, indicated 133,821 Confederate deaths (74,524 battle and 59,297 other) based upon incomplete returns. In addition, an estimated 26,000 to 31,000 Confederate personnel died in Union prisons.

About 7,000 have died in the combined “war on terror” operations that began in 2001 and continue today.

Wars covered in the Pentagon records include the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam Conflict, and the Persian Gulf War, which included Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.

Military operations covered in casualty totals also include the many Pentagon named “operations” going back to the attempt to free American hostages held by Iranian Revolutionaries in 1979. The list includes the Iranian Hostage Rescue Mission; Lebanon Peacekeeping; Urgent Fury in Grenada; Just Cause in Panama; Restore Hope in Somalia; Uphold Democracy in Haiti; Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF); Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF); Operation New Dawn (OND); Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR); and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS).

Women have been among those who made the ultimate sacrifice. In World War II, 432 women – primarily American military medical personnel in the Pacific theater of operations – were killed in the line of service. Another 88 were taken as Prisoners of War.

Until recently, women were rarely allowed to serve in combat areas, with the exception of nurses. In the Korean War, women accounted for two of the 36,574 active duty service members killed. The number rose to 8 in the Vietnam War out of 58,225. In Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, women accounted for 15 of the 383 killed.

President Harry Truman formally integrated women into the U.S. Armed Forces, ending most distinctions of units and corps by gender. Today, women qualify for all roles, including high-risk service such as combat pilots and Navy SEALs.

The Pentagon’s records come with caveats.

“Data prior to World War I are based on incomplete records in many cases. Casualty data are confined to dead and wounded and, therefore, exclude personnel captured or missing in action who were subsequently returned to military control.”

The separate internal operations of the services also create gaps. Through World War II, the Marines counted the number of its servicemembers had been wounded in each war. One person wounded three different times counted as one wounded Marine. The other branches counted each individual wound in their data. Three wounds to one soldier or sailor counted as three.