Rose Pasture Body Buried Between Exposures

Gettysburg Greg

First Sergeant
Joined
Jun 6, 2010
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Decatur, Illinois
rose combo1 (2).jpg

When Alexander Gardner's crew discovered more than 40 Confederate bodies in the Rose pasture at Gettysburg, they took the time to expose 12 photographic plates of the bodies that had been gathered for burial by their comrades. Apparently there was a Union burial detail working the field at the same time Gardner was. The two photos below that show the same group of bodies from a slightly different angle provide the clue that led Frassanito to come to this conclusion. Notice that the body lying right next to the rock in the left photo is missing in the right hand shot, apparently having been buried in the fresh grave to the left of the soldier with the bent knee. My now photo shows the location as it appears today.
 
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Is the body buried there still?

Possibly, but my guess is that he is not. According to the Elliot Map, there were some 1000 Confederate burials around the Rose farm and the Wheatfield. With that kind of record, I imagine most of those bodies were disinterred in the 1870s along with many of the others around Gettysburg.

Ryan
 
Another set of B and A pictures and images. I just really enjoy these. Just something I can't really explain. Maybe a holdover from After The Battle Magazine. As usual great work keep it up. I would saying today, it would give one an odd feeling going over this ground. It makes you wonder if they recovered all of the bodies.
 
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When Alexander Gardner's crew discovered more than 40 Confederate bodies in the Rose pasture at Gettysburg, they took the time to expose 12 photographic plates of the bodies that had been gathered for burial by their comrades. Apparently there was a Union burial detail working the field at the same time Gardner was. The two photos below that show the same group of bodies from a slightly different angle provide the clue that led Frassanito to come to this conclusion. Notice that the body lying right next to the rock in the left photo is missing in the right hand shot, apparently having been buried in the fresh grave to the left of the soldier with the bent knee. My now photo shows the location as it appears today.
Thanks for sharing yet another excellent perspective!
 
Another set of B and A pictures and images. I just really enjoy these. Just something I can't really explain. Maybe a holdover from After The Battle Magazine. As usual great work keep it up. I would saying today, it would give one an odd feeling going over this ground. It makes you wonder if they recovered all of the bodies.

This may be well known, but when I was in Gettysburg last year I heard that they are sure they did not recover all of the bodies. In the months and years after the battle, known burials of Union dead were moved to the cemetery (or brought home in some cases). Confederates were disinterred or moved south; excepting a few known or suspected to have been placed in the federal cemetery. Everyone suspected that they did not recover all of the dead and believed it was impossible do so. I was lead to believe that every now and then, most recently in 1997, a new burial site is disturbed.

And there are still Confederate burials, apparently near Culp's Hill.
 
No, Confederate bodies that could be located were reinterred in the south after 1867.
Did the Union burial parties mark individual Confederate graves? When they exhumed the bodies ten years later, did they have other documents other than the Eliot map to locate the burials?
 
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