Carnage, n.
Etymology: [F. carnage, LL. carnaticum tribute of animals, flesh of animals, fr. L. caro, carnis, flesh. See Carnal.]
1. Flesh of slain animals or men. A miltitude of dogs came to feast on the carnage. Macaulay.
2. Great destruction of life, as in battle; bloodshed; slaughter; massacre; murder; havoc. The more fearful carnage of the Bloody Circuit. Macaulay.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for carnage; he lists it under massacre.
Where he writes about it:
Carnage (Latin caro, carnis, flesh) refers to widely scattered or heaped up corpses of the slain; slaughter is similar in meaning, but refers more to the process, as carnage does to the result; these two words only of the group may be used of great destruction of life in open and honorable battle, as when we say the enemy was repulsed with great slaughter, or the carnage was terrible. — from massacre