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[CIRCULAR.] HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
July 4, 1863.
Corps commanders will detail burial parties to bury all the enemy’s dead in the vicinity of their lines. Correct accounts of the numbers buried will be kept, and returns made, through corps headquarters, to the assistant adjutant-general. The arms, accouterments, &c., will all be collected, and turned over to the ordnance officers. Re-ports of the number and kinds of each picked up will be reported to these headquarters.
By command of Major-General Meade:
S. WILLIAMS,
Assistant Adjutant- General.
When a general fell near enemy lines were they usually given special burials or returned to the other side?? I guess what I am trying to say was, were burial details ordered to seperated generals usually or did they say there was no time for that and just mass bury everyone regardless of rank.
Generally in my readings when I come across officers killed I find that colonels and generals might be sent back, but anythign under that was usually bureid en mass. Especially Generals. I can't imagine that a general would be buried in a mass grave at that time.
__________________ "In mortal combat, a man may and will become so infuriated by the din and dangers of a bloody fight that his heart will turn to stone and his every de sire [be] for blood."
John Hadley, 7th Indiana after the battle at Port Republic
Col. Winfield Peters, Q. M. Gen. Army of Northern Virginia had this to say in a personal letter about Garnett's death:
"General Garnett was killed while leading his brigade in Pickett's charge across the field and up the slope between the two contending battle lines. Immediately after the great artillery duel, during which many of the enemy's guns were silenced, orders came for the general advance of Pickett's division, but it was not until we had covered nearly the entire distance between the two lines that the General received his death wound. "I was struck down (hit in the forehead by a fragment of shell) about 100 yards from the clump of trees near the ****hest point reached by our brigade (reduced to a mere handful), now indicated by a bronze tablet; also the place is marked where General Garnett was killed. Semi-conscious, my blood almost blinding me, I stumbled and fell among some rocks, severely injuring my knee and preventing further locomotion. The last I saw of General Garnett he was astride his big black charger in the forefront of the charge and near the stone wall, just beyond which is marked the ****hest point reached by the Southern troops. The few that were left of our brigade advanced to this point.
"General Garnett was gallantly waving his hat and cheering the men on to renewed efforts against the enemy. I remember that he wore a black felt hat with a silver cord. His sword hung at his side. After falling among the rocks I lost sight of him. Captain Campbell, retiring from the front with a broken arm, came to me. During the next 15 minutes the contending forces were engaged in a life and death struggle, our men desperately using the butts of their rifles, during all of which I could detect our regimental colors to the ****hest point reached.
"At this time a number of the Federals threw down their arms and started across the field to our rear. Two of these deserters came to the clump of rocks where the Captain and I were and asked to be allowed to assist us to our rear, obviously for mutual safety, and the kind proffer was accepted. These men told us that our brigade general had been killed, having been shot through the body at the waist by a grape shot. Just before these men reached us General Garnett's black war horse came galloping toward us with a huge gash in his right shoulder, evidently struck by a piece of shell. The horse in its mad flight jumped over Captain Campbell and me. "General Garnett wore a uniform coat, almost new, with a general's star and wreath on the collar, and top boots, with trousers inside, and spurs. It is, therefore, inexplicable that his remains were not identified."
Col. Winfield Peters, Q. M. Gen. Army of Northern Virginia had this to say in a personal letter about Garnett's death:
There's something fishy about that letter.
Peters was NOT the QM of the ANV at Gettysburg.
And furthermore,
Why in the world would a Quartermaster General of the entire ANV be taking part in the PPT charge?
I don't doubt the letters validity but I think it should be credited to a soldier of the line.
Good catch, Lefty. Appreciate the followup, tackitt. Looks like we've gotten most of the answer. It sounds like he was close enough that cannister "pattern" would still have been concentrated enough to take him off his horse.
This seems to contradict that the General's horse was found uninjured. Comments?
ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
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