re: The worst wars to be a US soldier in

I do think the Civil War was the worst time to be an infantryman.

But I'm currently reading On Desperate Ground about the battle at the Chosin reservoir in Korea. The prospect of being surrounded and outnumbered in subzero temperatures with inadequate equipment is terrifying to me.

I just got through the 2nd night of the battle and read about Lt John Yancey. Yancey led his platoon in hand-to-hand combat through the sub-zero night. A grenade exploded near him, lodging a piece of shrapnel in the roof of his mouth. A bullet tore through his nose. A second bullet pierced his right cheek, knocking out his teeth, popping his eye out of socket, and lodging in the back of his neck. The man put his eye back in his socket and kept fighting. He remained in the fight until he lost so much blood he couldn't move and could no longer see.

He fought in the Pacific in WWII as well. He even tried to get shipped off to Vietnam. What a salty arse Marine.