Burial Pits, Moved Union Remains

bb4429

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Mar 11, 2017
We're from Michigan and have always been interested in Civil War history. Mostly our ancestors involvement on both sides. We took a camping excursion to The LBL this spring (2017) and stayed at the Piney campground near Ft Donalson. We toured the fort and battle field and visited the confederate graves near Ft. Henry. Looking at the local map we saw Shiloh was only a couple hours away. So we packed the kids up and took a day trip. We were there for the second day of the 155th anniversary. Our kids are relatively young and think walking over a couple of miles is parental torture. So... we took the driving tour. However, we did get out and survey the battle field quite a bit. When we got to Rhea Filed I managed to talk the crew into seeing the Confederate burial pit near the second Waterhouse Battery. We walked across the stream, the field and up the hill to the battery, not knowing the pit was further in the woods ("torture"). We got to the Confederate pit and saw where the Union remains were removed from their pit. Pretty eerie looking at a 155 year old hole and dirt pile. The most eerie was the walk back. I noticed in the woods a lot of 5 to 6 foot long ft trenches with a long dirt pile next to them. Long story short, is this where Union remains were removed to be reentered? I've searched for an explanation but haven't found one yet. Thanks in advance Shiloh historians!
 
My guess would be that what you saw is probably the result of uprooted trees. I've seen this elsewhere in the park, and yes, they can sometimes make you do a double-take at first. The former Union burial trenches are, as you saw, identified with markers, although I'm sure they probably missed some. They're typically only slight depressions, and would probably get completely overlooked were it not for the markers next to them. (And you're right about how eerie it can feel to see them.) But the only earthworks in the park that date to the battle are back along Grant's Last Line, where Schwartz's battery was located.

I'll be at the park in a couple of days, and will try to get out to the area around that burial trench and take some pictures that can hopefully show what I mean about the holes left behind by fallen trees.

Perry
 
Thank you all for your answers. As to fallen trees, it never crossed my mind. We live in an area that was logged off for the steam age and anything cleared grows corn and beans today. With the Battlefield being preserved so soon after the war it would be easy, 150 years, for the tree to disappear and leave the hole and dirt. Learn something new every day!.
 
Well, I've been trying to upload some photos on the burial trenches and holes left behind by uprooted trees, but I keep getting security error messages. I guess the board software doesn't trust me. :smile:

Anyway, I uploaded some of the pictures to Flickr, so I'll link to them here, and hopefully that works. The pictures aren't the best, but I think they give an idea of what we've been talking about here.

First, here's a picture of the Confederate burial trench in the woods north of Rea Field -

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrap10/37623922125/in/dateposted/

Here's the same trench from a different angle -

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrap10/37623916995/in/photostream/

These were taken in the late afternoon a little over a week ago. If you try to visualize this spot minus the monument, marker, and border around the burial trench, you can see how difficult it would be to even realize it was there. None of the five known burial trenches would really stand out from the surroundings if they weren't already marked. There are several more somewhere in the park, but they were never marked for some reason, and their locations have since been lost.

Here's the small burial trench for the 43rd Illinois, located just down the hill from the above burial trench -

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrap10/37623930515/in/photostream/

It's kind of difficult to make out here, but the actual burial trench is right behind and just to the right of the marker from the camera position, running from bottom-right to top-left. There is also a position marker for this regiment off to the right, just out of camera range. This particular trench is fairly well defined compared to some of the others I've seen in the park, but even so, if it wasn't marked, you could easily mistake it for nothing more than a small depression in the ground.

That's what so often gets me about battlefield parks. If not for the epic battles that took place there, the woods and fields would be no different from countless other woods and fields around the country. I know this isn't exactly breaking news to anyone here. But still. We know them as extraordinary places, yet in a sense they are no different from so many other places that bear no such label. Random chance set them apart.

Anyway, here's a picture of what at first could be mistaken for a burial trench or even wartime-era earthworks, but in reality it's what's left from when a tree fell over -

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrap10/26735017509/in/photostream/

You see these in the woods all over the park, at different angles. Some are better defined than others, probably due to time. This one is not far from the two burial trenches pictured above.

And finally, here's a picture of a recently-fallen tree, showing what it looks like when it's completely uprooted.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrap10/24638544508/in/photostream/

I forget exactly where in the park this was, but as you can see, it can displace quite a bit of dirt. Over time the wood will of course rot away and the dirt will get weathered down and rounded off, and probably end up looking a lot like the others around the park created in the same way. I couldn't even begin to guess how long it takes. But it probably depends on several factors, including how big the tree was.

In any case, again, not the greatest pictures, but you can get the general idea.

Perry
 
Hi there. I can't answer your specific question but I am sensitive to the same feelings around mass burials, mass battle deaths, and so on. Where I live, we have pre-historic Native American burial mounds on many, many high points overlooking streams. Those are all mass burials. I feel an oddly calming spiritual presence when I am near any of those and I like to climb them and sit on them for a while and just soak in the spirituality. When at a Civil War mass grave or the site of a mass killing, I get varied feelings, but none of them are particularly calming. Not eerie, either. I just get a sobering, solemn feeling.
 
Well, I've been trying to upload some photos on the burial trenches and holes left behind by uprooted trees, but I keep getting security error messages. I guess the board software doesn't trust me. :smile:

Anyway, I uploaded some of the pictures to Flickr, so I'll link to them here, and hopefully that works. The pictures aren't the best, but I think they give an idea of what we've been talking about here.

First, here's a picture of the Confederate burial trench in the woods north of Rea Field -

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrap10/37623922125/in/dateposted/

Here's the same trench from a different angle -

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrap10/37623916995/in/photostream/

These were taken in the late afternoon a little over a week ago. If you try to visualize this spot minus the monument, marker, and border around the burial trench, you can see how difficult it would be to even realize it was there. None of the five known burial trenches would really stand out from the surroundings if they weren't already marked. There are several more somewhere in the park, but they were never marked for some reason, and their locations have since been lost.

Here's the small burial trench for the 43rd Illinois, located just down the hill from the above burial trench -

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrap10/37623930515/in/photostream/

It's kind of difficult to make out here, but the actual burial trench is right behind and just to the right of the marker from the camera position, running from bottom-right to top-left. There is also a position marker for this regiment off to the right, just out of camera range. This particular trench is fairly well defined compared to some of the others I've seen in the park, but even so, if it wasn't marked, you could easily mistake it for nothing more than a small depression in the ground.

That's what so often gets me about battlefield parks. If not for the epic battles that took place there, the woods and fields would be no different from countless other woods and fields around the country. I know this isn't exactly breaking news to anyone here. But still. We know them as extraordinary places, yet in a sense they are no different from so many other places that bear no such label. Random chance set them apart.

Anyway, here's a picture of what at first could be mistaken for a burial trench or even wartime-era earthworks, but in reality it's what's left from when a tree fell over -

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrap10/26735017509/in/photostream/

You see these in the woods all over the park, at different angles. Some are better defined than others, probably due to time. This one is not far from the two burial trenches pictured above.

And finally, here's a picture of a recently-fallen tree, showing what it looks like when it's completely uprooted.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wrap10/24638544508/in/photostream/

I forget exactly where in the park this was, but as you can see, it can displace quite a bit of dirt. Over time the wood will of course rot away and the dirt will get weathered down and rounded off, and probably end up looking a lot like the others around the park created in the same way. I couldn't even begin to guess how long it takes. But it probably depends on several factors, including how big the tree was.

In any case, again, not the greatest pictures, but you can get the general idea.

Perry
Thanks for the pics. Only been to Shiloh once and it rained pretty heavy on and off that day. Didn't get to do much trail walking. You got to see and photograph places I didn't get to go. Appreciate the pics.
 
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