Dead in a tree

[KianGaf]

A YouTube channel I like does a lot of Gettysburg content lately and he put this video up today. Is it just a tall tale handed down through a family or could it be possible ? It sounds far fetched to me.

 

[John Winn]

A YouTube channel I like does a lot of Gettysburg content lately and he put this video up today. Is it just a tall tale handed down through a family or could it be possible ? It sounds far fetched to me.

I, too, think this goes in the "family lore" basket. I don't feel that a skeleton, minus one leg, would have stayed up in a tree that long. Animals, wind, and gravity would have made that very unlikely. Good story, though.

 

[CavRTO]

A YouTube channel I like does a lot of Gettysburg content lately and he put this video up today. Is it just a tall tale handed down through a family or could it be possible ? It sounds far fetched to me.

I wouldn't discount the possibility especially given the location being so far from the major large scale engagements which occurred elsewhere on the battlefield. Bones are still cropping up from the WWI battlefields in Belgium and France.

 

[Mrs. V]

If the person was up the tree, entwined with the branches..maybe? Family stories need to be taken with a grain of salt, but, yeah, this might have been..cool story. Even better if the tree where the body was found haz a haint.

 

[John Winn]

I wouldn't discount the possibility especially given the location being so far from the major large scale engagements which occurred elsewhere on the battlefield. Bones are still cropping up from the WWI battlefields in Belgium and France.

Yeah, but not in trees. Think about what would be required to support a human body much less the remaining skeleton in a tree, months after death. It just doesn't add up.

 

[Mrs. V]

Yeah, but not in trees. Think about what would be required to support a human body much less the remaining skeleton in a tree, years after death. It just doesn't add up.

Ever gotten stuck in a sticker bush?? I would, like Mythbusters mark it "plausable".

 

[CavRTO]

Yeah, but not in trees. Think about what would be required to support a human body much less the remaining skeleton in a tree, years after death. It just doesn't add up.

A sturdy branch would certainly be required especially given the recoil of those old weapons. If he found himself a good crook in a tree to hold him and a good branch to rest his gun on his body may very well have stayed there without anyone noticing. It was still summer for 2 more months so the leaves may very well have hidden the body.

 

[John Winn]

Ever gotten stuck in a sticker bush?? I would, like Mythbusters mark it "plausable".

Having spent 35 years of my life in the wilds I can honestly say that I have been stuck in a number of different bushes. That said, bushes are different than trees (that said by a person with degrees in such things). I don't buy that most of a human skeleton would have remained on a tree limb - or even two - that long after death. Most of the non-skeleton remains would have rotted or been eaten in something like two weeks. Loose bones would simply have fallen to the ground. I rather think Mythbusters would have proven my case (although I doubt they'd have been allowed to produce that episode).

 

[Nathan Stuart]

That's an interesting story passed down through successive generations.

Think some aspects don't add up, due mainly to information gaps.

Without even considering the plausibility of falling skeletons from treetops, find it difficult to believe that a Confederate sharpshooter was perched high in a tree in this vicinity of the battlefield, if it relates to the events of July 2.

In the sweltering heat of that day, exhausted and extremely thirsty Alabamians, many of whom did indeed carry Enfields, were in a fast-paced pursuit of rapidly retreating Berdan sharpshooters, up the slopes of Big Round Top. At the time, I believe the terrain they traversed over was difficult. It was thickly timbered with heavy underbrush (as evidenced in the video), and it got more difficult and boulder-strewn, as well as steeper, approaching the summit.

It's difficult to accept that in those circumstances, with these Alabama units in swift pursuit, that a Confederate sharpshooter (likely to be an Alabamian) was positioned in a treetop, with no clear visibility in dense woods of an enemy who was in rapid retreat under the concealment of heavy vegetative cover.

If any skeleton was indeed found afterwards in the treetop (a discovery that would have been hard to misinterpret by any witness), it seems more likely to believe that any such soldier may have been a spotter temporarily assigned to reconnoiter the surrounding area but who got targeted by a hidden Federal marksman operating nearby.

Also thought it hard to believe that if the original finder went to the extra effort to mark the spot and return with a party of people to bury the remains, that they would not have marked out the burial spot and at least one of this burial party would not have known the whereabouts of the interment to recall later.

Think there are some holes in this regurgitated story that may need explanation.

 

[KianGaf]

If the person was up the tree, entwined with the branches..maybe? Family stories need to be taken with a grain of salt, but, yeah, this might have been..cool story. Even better if the tree where the body was found haz a haint.

They were different times. Without TV , Radio etc people had to embellish a story to entertain each other. There was no harm in it if taken as that a story.

 

[121st PA Vols]

Now, if they found that cow up there, that's a different story. My people raised cattle in Florida (Charlis, Limousin) and there are some stories! But I guess it's plausible, finding remains in "the" railroad cut on 1st day's field west of town in 1996. See below **

The thing is, Big Round Top and LRT witnessed active not static battle, making it difficult (impossible?) to see shooting down into the smoke. The top of LRT was also at least intermittently crowned in smoke (limiting targets) especially after a few cannon were dragged up there.

** Copy from net: In 1996 human remains were found at Gettysburg National Military Park after erosion exposed them near a railroad embankment. Scientists from Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History studied those remains as well and determined that they were from the battle of Gettysburg.

 

[KianGaf]

Is there any estimates on how many soldiers either Confederate or Union are buried in unmarked graves on the battlefield.

 

[captaindrew]

Is there any estimates on how many soldiers either Confederate or Union are buried in unmarked graves on the battlefield.

That would be a tough estimate. There actually were good efforts made to record where bodies were buried. Later on most of the Union dead were reburied either at the National Cemetery in Gettysburg or brought back home. After the war many of the Confederate dead were were reburied in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond or returned to their homes. If it was known where they were they were most likely moved. There was a big push after the war both north and south, at all the battlefields, to try and recover as many of the boys as they could and bring them home that went on for years. There's a very good interesting PBS documentary that came out years ago on the subject "Death In the Civil War" I think it was called if you can find it.

 

[Lincoln56]

That would be a tough estimate. There actually were good efforts made to record where bodies were buried. Later on most of the Union dead were reburied either at the National Cemetery in Gettysburg or brought back home. After the war many of the Confederate dead were were reburied in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond or returned to their homes. If it was known where they were they were most likely moved. There was a big push after the war both north and south, at all the battlefields, to try and recover as many of the boys as they could and bring them home that went on for years. There's a very good interesting PBS documentary that came out years ago on the subject "Death In the Civil War" I think it was called if you can find it.

Greg Coco's works 'Wasted Valor', 'A Strange and Blighted Land' and 'A Vast Sea of Misery touch on this subject and do quite a good job about it.

'American Experience: Death & The Civil War' is definitely worth a watch. Here is a link to the DVD:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089VX0UO/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

 

[captaindrew]

Greg Coco's works 'Wasted Valor', 'A Strange and Blighted Land' and 'A Vast Sea of Misery touch on this subject and do quite a good job about it.

'American Experience: Death & The Civil War' is definitely worth a watch. Here is a link to the DVD:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0089VX0UO/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

Thanks for that link, I found it very interesting, maybe it can be viewed online or streaming somewhere, don't have time to look at the moment.

 

[gc45]

Come on now, you must know U=tube and many video creators are full of falsehoods.

 

[51st Georgia]

I WANT TO BELIEVE