[soc.history] High-ranking Officers killed in Action

klb@pegasus.att.com (Kevin Blatter) (09/20/90)

From: klb@pegasus.att.com (Kevin Blatter)
Driving to work the other day, I was thinking of high-ranking U.S. Military 
officers that have been killed in battle.  Two questions came to mind:

1) Who where the highest ranking officers killed in action during each of the
United State's military conflicts?  What rank did they hold at the time of
death?

2) What percentage of officers lost their lives as opposed to the percentage
of enlisted personnel?

I do know that during the Civil War that it was not at all uncommon for
Generals to be killed by sharpshooters and thus a greater percentage of officers
list their lives than did enlisted men.  Is this still the case?  If not,
during what conflict was the trend reversed?

Kevin Blatter
AT&T - Bell Laboratories
Lincroft, NJ