Burials after battles

[Jules362]

I've read various things about the problem of burying the dead after some, maybe most, of the battles, and that in some cases when the armies were on the move, burials were left to the people who lived in the area.

I don't recall where I read that after the war, crews were sent out to exhume bodies in some of the mass graves, and soldiers were eventually buried separately. I do recall seeing a photo of several black men who were apparently exhuming remains...and there was a cart or wheelbarrow full of mostly bones nearby. I would assume that by the time this happened, there was really no way of identifying separate remains.

I've looked through some of my books, but have found very little about it. What are the chances that one might find where a particular soldier, killed on a battlefield, is buried? How about if they were wounded, but died later that day or within a few days? Were records kept of the common soldier, and where they were buried? Were the bodies ever shipped back to their families? I know some of the officers were...I recall reading a rather gruesome description of the after-death journey home of General Reynolds after he was killed at Gettysburg.

In the case of my own family, my father's family were mostly rebels, my mother's people were New England Yanks. They died in a number of battles, but as far as I know from family research, none of their bodies were ever recovered by their families. What are the chances of finding some reference to the deaths of men based strictly on information of which battle ended their lives? And would there be any chance of actually finding a specific grave?

Jules

[M E Wolf]

Dear Jules362,

The photo you're describing is familiar--I think it is from "Cold Harbor." Alexander Gardner photographer - or one of his assistants on the field.

Burials were hasty done especially on the march in attack/retreat but, there were truces often to give the wounded medical help and bury the dead. Often those buried were in shallow graves and rain would just bubble them up and expose them to the sun and critters. It was a time before 'dog tags' so personal items were the only clue.

Medical records of the "Official Record of the Rebellion" is so-so; reading official reports sometimes lists the dead--especially officers; it would then be really the company commander's duty to record the names missing at roll call--so, perhaps regimental, company, division records would be of help. The Union seemed more detailed about people passing through their care - Confederacy records are not there in the medical section unfortunately. If it was a Rebel who died in the care of US Army medical hospitals there is a chance.

National Archives perhaps, US Library of Congress and newspapers would be a potential lead--especially if you can get into the archives. Never know if flood or fire has wiped them out for good--otherwise, US Library of Congress is another avenue.

Most I've heard families of the Confederate Dead either took them to family plots or bury them at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, VA.

May want to try the US Park Service, Dept. of the Interior if any relatives died in a major battlefield that is preserved.

Just some thoughts.

Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf

[Will Posey]

There was no plan nor organization on either side to take care of the battlefield dead.

Burials on both sides were hastily done and in many cases there was no opportunity for identifying the individuals, much less marking the graves. The work was done by the soldiers who had just fought the battle, not by any specially-trained units.

Unless officers were especially diligent, there would be no reliable record of who was buried where. Mass graves were frequently used.

In some cases, families of Confederate soldiers killed in battle near their homes would search among the sprawled bodies on the battlefield until they found their loved one. Then they'd load him on a wagon and take him home.

Six Confederate soldiers from Texas were killed by Union troops at my great great grandfather's house in Overton County, Tennessee. My family buried them in individual, marked graves in the family cemetery. Those graves are now permanently marked with government headstones. A cousin told me that some people from Texas came to visit the graves some years ago.

Occasionally, construction workers will unearth unidentified remains when developing land near a battlefield site. Sometimes buttons or belt buckles can determine whether Union or Confederate, but that's about as far as it goes.

Will Posey

[J_Man0507]

Burials on the field tended to be quite hasty, because the army was very likely to move soon and there was no time to plot out a cemetery for all the dead men that were lying around.

There are numerous accounts as to men burying a fallen comrade near a tree, or marking the grave in some fashion, so that when the fighting was all over, they could come back and retrieve the remains, or they could pass it along to family so that they could possibly journey down to retrieve the body. Some bodies were given some kind of identification, either carved into a tree, a board or something that was put with the remains themselves, and others were left unidentified.

The picture you are thinking of is indeed on of bodies being exhumed at Cold Harbor, the site of two pretty major engagements of the war. There were many bodies, and I am not sure, but I am gonna guess that many of them went unidentified. If you go down to Cold Harbor, there is a cemetery there and you can see how many are identified and how many are unknowns.

[diddyriddick]

I don't know how they did it, but here in Raleigh, they have retrieved remains from other battlefields and re-interred them at the Oakwood Cemetary. Most of these graves are not anonymous. There was a concerted effort in the 1970s for this.

[William]

Gettysburg was fought in pretty hot conditions and I suppose the burial parties understandbly tried to get it done as soon as possible. I remember reading somewhere that people in Gettysburg got sick because of the stench.

[Blockaderunner]

On many fields, bodies were recovered after the war for burial in National Cemeteries. For example, the National Cemetery at Fredericksburg contains dead from the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Wilderness and Spotsylvannia. On a visit to Wilderness, a ranger pointed out to me hollows in the ground where bodies had been recovered. The dead had initially been buried where they had fallen. Identification was sometimes only possible if a board or cross had been erected bearing the dead mans name. This accounts for the large number of unknowns in cemeteries. Hundreds or maybe thousands of bodies remain buried on battlefields to this day.

[M E Wolf]

Dear List Members,

Personally speaking, heart wise -- these gallant men and women who are not known to us or --better yet titled 'unknown soldier/sailor/Marine' - is thankfully known to God.

Just some thoughts.

Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf
[Coincidentally listening to Federal Brass Band's "Abide with Me."]

[tackitt27]

At the end of "Glory" there is a scene where soldiers are thrown into mass graves. Seems like years ago at Shiloh they have mass graves marked. Seems like they mark them with black concrete around where the grave was. They were maybe 50 feet long or better.

[J_Man0507]

Originally Posted by tackitt27

At the end of "Glory" there is a scene where soldiers are thrown into mass graves. Seems like years ago at Shiloh they have mass graves marked. Seems like they mark them with black concrete around where the grave was. They were maybe 50 feet long or better.

IIRC, there were up to nine burial trenches on the battlefield of Shiloh, five of which have been found and marked. It would be amazing to find the others and mark them as well.

The issue of pestilence was brought up as well. Battles that were fought in the heat of summer required that bodies be buried quickly to prevent the overwhelming stench and disease that they could bring with them. Thus battles like Gettysburg saw bodies buried quickly in the area that they fell. It wasn't until later that bodies were disinterred and taken back to their respective states or put into the soon to be National Cemeteries. That is one of the reasons that Arlington is now a cemetery; they needed a place to bury their dead (plus, it was a measure of revenge against Lee and a way to ensure he didn't move back into Arlington House.)

Other battles saw bodies that were left unburied. I have read accounts of men who fought in the Wilderness in 1864 coming upon bodies that hadn't been buried after the Battle of Chancellorsville. Now, I am sure this has a great deal to do with the fact that both sides left the field and were soon on their way north, but the fact remains that many bodies lay where they fell, unburied. So it goes both ways; some men were buried quickly, some in mass graves, and other went unburied. There are probably still hundreds, if not thousands, of unmarked graves still existing on Civil War battlefields to this day.