# What was the largest battle in human history? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 13, 2013, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773 "2013-09-13T16:00:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/41 "2013-09-15T08:44:49Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > I doubt many conscripts had gold teeth then. Fine then. Boots. Weapons and ammo. Rations. Wallets. Timepieces. Wedding bands. Clothing. Make no mistake : looting’s a time honoured tradition. Battlefields have always been rich pickings for the discerning eye, especially when said eye belonged to a man who’d just had his livelihood blown or torched to smithereens. But naturally, the winning side’s soldiers had first dibs. Only fair, innit ? Ugly maybe, but not moreso than war itself. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/42 "2013-09-15T13:19:26Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Fine then. Boots. Weapons and ammo. Rations. Wallets. Timepieces. Wedding bands. Clothing. Make no mistake : looting’s a time honoured tradition. Battlefields have always been rich pickings for the discerning eye, especially when said eye belonged to a man who’d just had his livelihood blown or torched to smithereens. But naturally, the winning side’s soldiers had first dibs. Only fair, innit ? > > Ugly maybe, but not moreso than war itself. And… (non-gold) _[teeth](http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/techniques/dentures.aspx)_ :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/43 "2013-09-15T13:27:47Z")
How many people were slaughtered when Quiggis, called in the West Genghis, Khan destroyed Central Asian cities, & slaughtered their entire populations? Do the slaughtered civilians count? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/44 "2013-09-15T16:58:44Z")
The civilians are not really part of the picture. The OP is trying to imagine divisions or regiments or brigades or whatever moving across the field in masses and how that would look, both to an observer and to a participant. ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/45 "2013-09-15T17:09:04Z")
For those curious about retreating soldiers being systematically shot: [Barrier Troops.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barrier_troops) It doesn’t say anything about British sergeants, though. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/46 "2013-09-15T17:25:19Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > Statistically, based on world population at the time, Cain vs. Abel. > > 😃 I too was thinking along these lines, but couldn’t come up with any primordial (any myth) two-against-one battles ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/47 "2013-09-15T18:49:22Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Reading the accounts of Pickett’s Charge, (US Civil War, Gettysburg, PA), it was an awe inspiring site for the Union to see about 10,000 men marching toward them, over open ground one mile away… An estimated near-20k advanced and were repelled at Franklin in 1864: [Battle of Franklin - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Franklin). > [@Miller](#): > > …Picket’s charge has been noted up thread, but was not the largest during the war, which might be Gaine’s Mill, which saw between 30,000 and 50,000 men in simultaneous assault along a two mile front… Gaines’s Mill is indeed thought to be have been the biggest Confederate attack of the war. ---
**Author:** ![Randy\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ee7513/32.png) [@Randy\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randy_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/48 "2013-09-15T19:24:32Z")
Earlier thread: **[What was the largest pitched battle of all time?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=487616)** Highlights from that thread:[ul] [li][The Battle of Ecomus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ecnomus) during the first punic war had 300,000 participants in a one-day battle. However, it was a sea battle.[/li][li]Some claim that 300,000 appeared for the [Fall of Constantinople](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople), but the numbers are widely disputed, and the timeline may put it out of the category of single pitched battles.[/li][li]Discussions about whether Kursk and the Battle of the Bulge count as “battles” for the purpose of the discussion.[/li][li] Ditto for the Battle of Stalingrad, which had 1.5-2 million casualties.[/li][li] Ditto for the [Battle of Verdun](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_verdun).[/li][li] Discussions of the [Battle of Cannae](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cannae) which indisputably meets the definition of “battle” but doesn’t have quite the impressive numbers of some other battles.[/li][\*] [The Battle of Leipzig](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_leipzig) was approximately a 3-day battle, and some say as many as 600,000 participated. [/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/49 "2013-09-17T02:39:34Z")
John Beeler, in his book _Warfare in Feudal Europe, 730-1200_, estimates that William the Conqueror had a force of 7,000, including 2,000 knights, when he took England in 1066. Beeler also discusses a list of heavy calvary units mustered for the Holy Roman Emperor Otto II in 980: 2,080-2,090 troops raised by two dukes, six counts, two margraves, twelve lesser nobles, four archbishops, fifteen bishops, and ten abbots from Franconia, Bavaria-Swabia, and Lotharingia. No infantry were raised (these units were intended to reinforce Otto’s forces in Italy; the infantry were probably already with him on the ground campaigning there). That should give you some idea of the heavy horse that a medieval German emperor could bring down on your head in those days. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/50 "2013-09-17T19:05:53Z")
The War On Drugs? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Carl\_Corey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Carl\_Corey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carl_Corey)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/51 "2013-09-17T21:39:35Z")
What a coincidence. I just reread Beeler’s book a couple of days ago. ---
**Author:** ![TashaKitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d26b3c/32.png) [@TashaKitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TashaKitty)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2013, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/52 "2013-09-17T23:22:21Z")
The Battle of the Pellenor Fields. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/53 "2013-09-18T00:27:14Z")
By percentage of world population, Cain vs Abel. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/54 "2013-09-18T00:29:32Z")
> [@cmkeller](#): > > By percentage of world population, Cain vs Abel. See post 39… and next time try reading the whole thread. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773/55 "2013-09-18T03:13:05Z")
The Battle of Red Cliffs circa 220AD China. Northern General Cao Cao allegedly had a ‘million man host’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-largest-battle-in-human-history/668773.md?page=2)