@NH Civil War Gal I am certain that there are tens of thousands of lost unmarked graves, filled with dead soldiers of both the Federal and Confederate armies from the American Civil War. It was protocol after a large battle had been fought, where hundreds and thousands had died, to use the trenches as makeshift mass graves. Men were detailed from both armies to go and cover the dead with dirt and spread lime over them to try and reduce the spread of disease. The ones that would die in the countless number of field hospitals would often be dragged off by their blankets and buried in shallow graves near the hospitals. These soldiers would sometimes get wooden headboards with their names carved into them to identify who was buried there. However, with-in ten to fifteen years those wooden markers would rot away, essentially leaving them unmarked graves. These field hospitals were often homes of civilians, for a few days at a time, as the armies were forced to move and fight from location to location. Official and more well-established hospitals had burial grounds and records kept of where those who died were taken and given proper burials with wooden headboards, quite a few of these burial grounds later became proper U.S. Veteran and Confederate Rest Cemeteries.
Numerous cavalrymen, from both armies, were buried near where they fell along roads, railroad tracks, swamps, wooded areas, rivers and creeks, if they were buried at all. Sometimes, men were left where they fell and not buried, which resulted in residents coming after the fight to bury them to reduce the chance of disease spreading throughout their local communities. This is why the memorials from specific battles are so important, because often times if a person was looking to find out where an ancestor died during the Civil War, it would be near impossible to find that grave, so we honor those men`s memories at a memorial erected to memorialize the battle instead. Sometimes the families of dead soldiers would travel hundreds of miles to retrieve the remains of their loved ones and lay them to rest in their family cemeteries, taking great risk in doing so as the trips were perilous and filled with danger. I have several examples of this regarding the 2nd Alabama Cavalry.
After the war, some went out of their way to let people know where some men with whom they had fought and served had died and where they were buried, so that their family members and others would know where to find the remains of their ancestors. For example, there are thirteen Confederate Soldiers buried near Lake Station, Scott County, MS., who sometime during the first part of 1862, died in the vicinity of that small town from a train wreck. The bodies were laid to rest next to the train tracks. The following was reported in the 30 May 1869 issue of the
"Memphis Daily Appeal," It published the following announcement from Benjamin Flippin, a concerned Tennessean who had knowledge of the men`s tragic death and interment:
"Confederate Dead. To the Friends of the 5th Tennessee Infantry, CSA; Lake Station, Miss. May 7, 1869. Mr. Editor, for the information of the friends and relations of M. V. Lowrey, John N. Hicks, James Jones, and about ten others, whose names are not given, please publish in your paper, that they are buried near Lake Station, Miss. At the time of the unfortunate railroad accident which terminated their lives, somewhere about the first of the year 1862. They were in transit and members of the 5th Tennessee Infantry CSA. Being a Tennessean myself, I feel it a sacred duty to have their names of comrades published, so that their friends may know where they await the great convocation. All Tennessee papers please copy. Respectively, Benjamin Flippin."
In the same county about nine miles west from the town of Lake, at Forest, MS., there is a very small Confederate cemetery. It is enclosed and well kept, being cared for by the town. In it are buried six Confederate soldiers, whose names are unknown, except that one was named "McLemore" and another, "Flanagan." Nothing else is known of them. They were taken off of a train in 1862 or 1863 and buried next to the railroad tracks at that small town. Citizens of that good town, by private subscription, later erected a monument to these deceased soldiers inscribed as follows:
"In memory of the Confederate Dead. Six brave soldiers are buried here."
I am sure that there are numerous other examples of this throughout the Southern and Northern States, in the years that followed the war. People want to know where their ancestors are buried so that they can visit and honor their memories and commemorate their service during the ACW.