Discovering an Unknown Burial Site at Antietam: War Department

Much depended on the specific battlefield and who won. Many bodies from the Overland Campaign were unburied or hastily buried by the men's comrades since Grant chose to move on quickly to the next battle and Lee followed. At Gettysburg initial burials occurred in the immediate aftermath of the battle with reburial occurring a few months later beginning in October. In the case of Antietam the land was not acquired until 1865 with reburials occurring over a 2+ year period before the dedication ceremony in September, 1867, five years after the battle. I've attached a link to the NPS Antietam National Cemetery website which gives some background for that site. If you can obtain a copy of Gregory Coco's A Strange and Blighted Land, he provides a lot of detail on the procedures.
https://www.nps.gov/anti/learn/historyculture/antietam-national-cemetery.htm
 
One interesting thing about Antietam burials is that they are part of the current lower bound estimates of Confederate casualties (there are more known dead bodies in the Confederate cemetries than reported Confederate dead and more prisoners than reported Confederate missing in the Maryland campaign). This means that the lower bound is very much a lower bound, as un-discovered battlefield burials and those bodies who were mistakenly identified as Union soldiers (owing to wearing blue) would not be included in the count.
 
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Dennis Frye, lifelong resident of the Antietam Valley and former Chief Historian at the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, gives a first hand account of discovering an unknown Irish Brigade burial site on the Antietam battlefield. Learn More about the Burial Map discovery here: https://www.battlefields.org/news/pre

I looked at the battlefield maps I can see the pin points of the 4th NC Infantry and the 30th NC Infantry both of my great great grandfathers Elisha Felton and Wiley H Robbins where in those regiments fighting all those union men. Amazing that they both survived the war and those bloody fights.
Are these unfortunate men still there?
 
Very interesting and thanks for posting. You know, our very own @Tom Hughes was among the hunters who found the Unknown Confederate soldier at Port Gibson. The bullet that killed that young man was still in his skull when they found him. This account reminded me so much of Tom’s discovery. Maybe Tom will post a thread about that day. But this was a great story. Again, thanks for posting!!
Where does this soldier rest now?
 
I'll say. Grew up a short distance from the battlefield, spent 20 years as Chief Historian at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park in a 32 year Park Ranger career. Plus he is married to a Poffenberger (yes, the ones who had farms in 3 of the famous "woods" at Antietam) and he is a Dunker (same as the church :giggle:). Very interesting gentleman.

Sounds like the team working on the CWT Fall Muster should invite Dennis Frye to speak to the group.
 
It’s the same soldier. @Tom Hughes was with Mr. Forte when the soldier was found.
My bad, you know I'm getting old:cold: and I drink (not till 5):frantic: I thought it was the Antietam soldier, didn't read the fine print. Ive know Rich for years and we used to do a lot of hunting together. He had a great gig at Beauvoir till he got to big for his pants.
 
My bad, you know I'm getting old:cold: and I drink (not till 5):frantic: I thought it was the Antietam soldier, didn't read the fine print. Ive know Rich for years and we used to do a lot of hunting together. He had a great gig at Beauvoir till he got to big for his pants.

My bad, you know I'm getting old:cold: and I drink (not till 5):frantic: I thought it was the Antietam soldier, didn't read the fine print. Ive know Rich for years and we used to do a lot of hunting together. He had a great gig at Beauvoir till he got to big for his pants.
He was Executive Director down there for a while.
 
He was Executive Director down there for a while.
Yes he was till he got into with the board. My Grandfather always told me to never sit on a board or committee, and when I ask why, he told that a 2 hump camel was originally a horse designed by a board. :D
 
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