Approximately 51,112 total casualties were recorded at Gettysburg. That figure includes soldiers killed, wounded, captured, or reported missing during the three-day battle in Pennsylvania from July 1 through July 3, 1863.
The commonly cited breakdown is about 23,049 Union casualties and 28,063 Confederate casualties. Exact totals vary among historians because Civil War records were incomplete, especially for missing soldiers and Confederate losses. For that reason, many references give a rounded range of roughly 46,000 to 51,000 casualties.
Gettysburg was the largest battle ever fought in North America up to that time and produced the heaviest combined losses of the Civil War. The casualties represented a devastating share of the approximately 165,000 soldiers engaged, although “casualty” does not mean every person died.
A frequent misunderstanding is treating 51,112 as the death toll. Most casualties were wounded, captured, or missing; the number killed was much lower. The figure also refers to both armies together, not to Union losses alone.