D.H. Hill
Private
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2013
The second view shows more of the larger trench structure: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/cwp2003005135/PP/resource/
Also the stereoscopic version has some info on it but I don't know how accurate it its- the water certainly doesn't look "2 feet deep":
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011649962/resourc
When a person (or animal) is shot in the head they twitch and jerk something awful but eventually relax and usually remain largely in its last position, just with no tension on the muscles. When a body sits for a while it starts to stiffen (rigor mortis) and the muscles and tendons contract. The back tends to arch, the wrists bend, and the fingers curl under, and other joints move according to which muscles controlling them were the strongest. Only a slight movement usually, but it's worse if the weather is hot (starts to dry out- look at the Antietam dead) or very cold (sudden release of calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum which causes muscles to tense). So curling of the fingers could mean that the hands were clutched in pain at the last moment but it could also just be that the body has been sitting there a while.
Also the stereoscopic version has some info on it but I don't know how accurate it its- the water certainly doesn't look "2 feet deep":
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011649962/resourc
e/The position of the hands of this dead soldier are an indication, as I recall, of a violent death. I can't remember where I read this, but in the discussion of some Italian Renaissance paintings of the dead, the artist is assumed to have used a real corpse because the model has her fingers curled in the position of a person who has died by violence. I spent some time trying to find the reference and cannot. Does some one else know of this?
When a person (or animal) is shot in the head they twitch and jerk something awful but eventually relax and usually remain largely in its last position, just with no tension on the muscles. When a body sits for a while it starts to stiffen (rigor mortis) and the muscles and tendons contract. The back tends to arch, the wrists bend, and the fingers curl under, and other joints move according to which muscles controlling them were the strongest. Only a slight movement usually, but it's worse if the weather is hot (starts to dry out- look at the Antietam dead) or very cold (sudden release of calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum which causes muscles to tense). So curling of the fingers could mean that the hands were clutched in pain at the last moment but it could also just be that the body has been sitting there a while.
Last edited: