- Joined
- Aug 25, 2012
I was wondering what what atrocities the members of the Union III and V Corps believed they were repaying the Confederates for committing at Gettysburg.
"Another division of Union soldiers press on the next morning to the town of Front Royal, but the Rebels were gone, except for stragglers and badly wounded men who had been left behind. But on the way back through the Manassas Gap, Salter recorded a shocking sight: He said he and his men "found over 100 bodies of rebels who had been killed or wounded and afterward bayoneted by our men, who had not forgiven their atrocities at Gettysburg and other places, and I afraid they never will, as the majority of the 3rd & 5th Corps declared they will bayonet every rebel the can get at, on the battlefield." These atrocities, if they were indeed committed on wounded Confederates soldiers, had taken place in the previous day's fighting in the pass, though it seems that no one else made note of it." (p 208 The 16th Michigan infantry in the Civil War revised edition, Kim Crawford claimed to be written about by Captain Charles H. Salter)
It is interesting that no one else reported on this, perhaps it was so common no one bothered to write anything about it. Still Captain Salter seen it as out of the ordinary. So if the bayoneting of wounded Confederate soldiers was out of the norm, what were the atrocities that the members of the III and V Corps that so upset about?
"Another division of Union soldiers press on the next morning to the town of Front Royal, but the Rebels were gone, except for stragglers and badly wounded men who had been left behind. But on the way back through the Manassas Gap, Salter recorded a shocking sight: He said he and his men "found over 100 bodies of rebels who had been killed or wounded and afterward bayoneted by our men, who had not forgiven their atrocities at Gettysburg and other places, and I afraid they never will, as the majority of the 3rd & 5th Corps declared they will bayonet every rebel the can get at, on the battlefield." These atrocities, if they were indeed committed on wounded Confederates soldiers, had taken place in the previous day's fighting in the pass, though it seems that no one else made note of it." (p 208 The 16th Michigan infantry in the Civil War revised edition, Kim Crawford claimed to be written about by Captain Charles H. Salter)
It is interesting that no one else reported on this, perhaps it was so common no one bothered to write anything about it. Still Captain Salter seen it as out of the ordinary. So if the bayoneting of wounded Confederate soldiers was out of the norm, what were the atrocities that the members of the III and V Corps that so upset about?