The death toll of September 11 won't be known for some time — it's too early even to have a rough estimate. "I have a sense it's a horrendous number of lives lost," said Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.
Yet it may be possible to grope toward putting the cost of human life into some kind of context. As the number of dead begins to emerge, consider the number of battle deaths the United States suffered in several of its major wars and battles.
Revolutionary War: 4,435
War of 1812: 2,260
Mexican War: 1,733
Battle of Antietam, the Civil War's bloodiest day: 4,710
Pearl Harbor: 2,403
Korean War: 33,651