The First Civilian Casualty of the U.S. Civil War Shocked Americans in 1861

The Ruins of Henry House in 1861, residence of 85-year-old Judith Carter Henry, the US Civil War’s first civilian casualty.

‘“Should troops be passing about the neighborhood, you and mother need not fear them, as your entire helplessness, I should think, would make you safe,” Hugh wrote in a May 30, 1861, letter to his sister Ellen’.

85-year-old Judith Carter Henry was the US Civil War’s first civilian casualty. Carter died in an artillary barrage by Union soldiers during the First Battle of Bull Run in Manasses, Virginia. Confederate troops later stripped the house for timber. By the end of the Civil War, an estimated 50,000 civilians had died of causes ranging from gunfire to starvation to disease. 

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