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| Posted: Wed Apr 23rd, 2008 04:53 pm |
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1st Post |
Tree Rat
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An Iowa soldier’s remarks on the mass burial of Confederate soldiers at Shiloh battlefield
Where the retreat commenced on Monday [7th] afternoon are hundreds and thousands of wounded rebels. They had fallen in heaps and the woods had taken fire and burned all the clothing off them and the naked and blackened corpses are still lying there unburried[.] on the hillside near a deep hollow our men were hauling them down and throwing them into the deep gulley [sic][.] one hundred and eighty had been thrown in when I was there. Men were in on top of the dead straightening out their legs and arms and tramping [sic] them down so as to make the hole contain as many as possible[.] Other man on the hillside had ropes with a noose on one end and they would attach this to a mans [sic] foot or his head and haul him down to the hollow and roll him in[.] Where the ground was level it was so full of water that the excavation filled up as fast as dug and the corpse was just rolled in and the earth just thrown over it and left.
War is hell broke loose [sic] and benumbs all the tender feeling of men and makes them brutes [sic] [.] I do not want to see any more such senses [sic] and yet I would not have missed this day for any consideratsion[.]
Boyd Diary, April 8, 1862
http://southernhistory.net/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8257
Cyrus F. Boyd's observations relative to the appearance of Shiloh battlefield
Weather cool and chilly. Has rained for five days and the roads are impassable. This is the most Godforsaken country I ever saw. We move camp about every day and in the woods all the time. This is one vast graveyard and shall we ever get out to it[.] The rains have washed the earth from the dead men and horses. Skulls and toes are sticking up from beneath the clay all around and the heavy wagons crush the bodies turning up the bones of the buried, making this one vast Golgotha[.] Sometimes our tents come over a little mound where sleep[s] some unknown soldier who has died [sic] for a principale [sic] but his serevivors [sic] have not even marked his last resting place or given him the burial of a faithful dog[.] What a mockery these lines seem ?
?lest are the brave who sink to rest
With all their Country?s wishes best.?
Boyd Diary, April 21, 1862.
http://southernhistory.net/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=8256
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23rd, 2008 05:16 pm |
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2nd Post |
Bama46
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Tree Rat,
Interesting letters...
I can't imagine the horror of watching the events that continued to unfold after the Confederate retreat. I understand the burning of dead horses and mules turned the air foul, there was wrecked equipment everywhere, and bodies too numerous to try to count. If you look in the National Cemetery today, in excess of 80% of all the graves are marked with a number instead of a name. The reason is that dead Union soldiers were buried in the same type mass graves as the Confederates...not buried together, just similiar trenches. Grant denied southern burial parties access to the field as he had the dead brom both sides buried to stave off disease. After the war, the bodies were exhumed and reburied in what is now the National Cemetery there. If memory serves, the national Cemetery was dedicated in the 1890's long after the war's end.
As an interesting note, the parkland has been extensively mapped using radar devices and it is pretty apparent that there are 2 or 3 union soldiers buried in the Indian Mounds found on the site. Union soldiers because no Confederates were buried anywhere near.
Ed
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23rd, 2008 05:56 pm |
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3rd Post |
renee
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Ed,
Do you know where the Confederate dead were buried? I have an ancestor whose military papers say he was killed at Shiloh. When I went to Shiloh a couple years ago I didn't know about him yet, I'd like to go back someday and place a flag or something but maybe they don't allow that??
Renee
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23rd, 2008 07:22 pm |
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4th Post |
barrydancer
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renee,
The Confederate dead were buried on the field in mass graves, and there they remain. Only five of these are marked, but there are many more on the field that no one was ever been able to find. According to Timothy Smith in his excellent book on the park's founding, the original park commission was able to locate nine trenches in the late 1890's, six within park boundaries and three outside. The locations of the other four have since been lost.
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23rd, 2008 07:40 pm |
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23rd, 2008 08:28 pm |
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Bama46
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There is very little about that park that the NPS does not know. I suspect however, they do not tell everything they know, especially with the number of idiots there are runnin around with metal detectors and shovels just alookin for that next big E-Bay find!
Seriously, because Shiloh is still at the crossroads of nowhere (God, I love it that way) vandalism is a huge problem. It is a federal felony to be caught with a metal detector in the park, but there is plenty of private land around and if the location of the trenches outside the park were known, they would be stripped in a heartbeat. Look what happened last summer at Vicksburg!
Ed
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23rd, 2008 09:11 pm |
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Albert Sailhorst
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Renee,
He may not even be buried at Shioh.
He could have died days or weeks later as a result of wounds received at Shiloh; hence, he was killed at Shiloh, but in actuality, died at another location.
Additionally, he could have been buried at Shiloh, then, some time later, disinterred by either the government or by his own family who then re-interred him in a cemetary or family plot.
You have some research to do, that's for sure!
Have you gotten his war record yet?
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23rd, 2008 09:54 pm |
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8th Post |
renee
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Well, I was afraid that's what you'd say. I guess I'll never know where he is for sure. I have not found him buried with any of the family.
His daughter was a poet and in reading a poem she'd written about her father, she stated 'he died on Shiloh's field' so I ordered the war record which confirmed it.
Great links, tree rat!
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| Posted: Wed Apr 23rd, 2008 11:33 pm |
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Bama46
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Albert,
I would doubt that he wu=ould have been disinterred from Shiloh and reinterred elsewhere. Remember all the dead were buried in mass graves (trenches). After the war when the union troops were reinterred in the National Cemetery at Shiloh, most were unknown as no records were made of who was buried where. Only if there was some way to identify a body at a later date was a name known, or in the case of Pvt Putnam, someone carved the info on a tree. The vast majority of the union graves are numbered, not named. In the case of the Confederates, they were buried in trenches and that was it! No attempt was made to identify the dead or record where they were buried. to be able to find a single soldier even at the time would have been very difficult, later approaching impossible (MHO)
A wounded man could have died anywhere in the local area. Renee, a number of wounded went by boat to Florence. And a number who died at Florence are buried at Soldier's Rest, a part of the old city cemetery....Give me a name and I will try to look for you when I am next in Florence...maybe a couple of weeks...no promises..Last edited on Wed Apr 23rd, 2008 11:40 pm by
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24th, 2008 01:35 am |
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10th Post |
ole
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If he died at Shiloh (and not somewhere else, as Bama has mentioned), he is in an unmarked grave. There's a good chance he's in one of the trenches.
The good people of Tennessee see that the trenches are lined with fresh flags several times per year. I can't imagine that the park would object to your placing one near each of the known trenches. That's most likely where your ancestor lies.
When the battle was over, Grant ordered that all the bodies be buried where found. (This being the army, there wasn't a single grave for each.) There are markers on the field that show where Federal troops were buried and later disinterred to lie under a number at the cemetery. The Confederates were not moved, and still lie in trenches.
Each known trench is clearly marked on your Trailhead Map. Each is accessible by foot. Each will break your heart. At least, almost all of the Federals have a number.
ole
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24th, 2008 01:58 am |
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Bama46
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When you visit the trenches, there are usually a few minature 1st National flags or sometimes even battleflags in front of the monuments. I suspect they have been placed by families much like Ole has suggested.
Ed
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24th, 2008 11:57 am |
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12th Post |
renee
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Thank you- his name is John M. Grissom. I would really like to place the flags next time I make it over there.
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| Posted: Thu Apr 24th, 2008 01:18 pm |
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Bama46
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I plan to spend the night in Florence on my home from Baldwin County (MObile area) in a couple of weeks..I llove to stop by the cemetery anyway and so I will look for him there..
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chrisr
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Renee,
Do you know what regiment he was in? Knowing this and then plotting where the Regiment fought would narrow down the area on the Shiloh battlefield where he may have fallen. Ir won't provide an exact location but at least you will know the general area.
Cheers
Chris
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renee
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Chris,
John M. Grissom was in the 1 (Johnston's) Mississippi Infantry. Prior to receiving the war record, I did some checking on-line though and never found anywhere that stated this regiment was at Shiloh. This really had me confused. Once I received his papers that confirmed he WAS in this regiment and that he was indeed 'killed at Shiloh', I called the MS archives and spoke with their civil war expert, do not remember his name, but he asked me some questions about the papers and then what he told me is that since John was on sick furlough prior to Shiloh- that his regiment must have moved on with out him while he was sick. Once he recuperated he joined up with another regiment that headed to Shiloh. I think he said he was probably in one of the hospitals around Corinth, it's been a while since I spoke with him now.
The only other thing in his record is a court document from Itawamba Co.,MS where John's widow and her father request the arrears of pay stating she was now a widow with two small children.
It's not much to go on, so unfortunaely I'll never know what happened to him for sure...
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Bama46
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Renee,
I will be in Florence next week and will check Soldier's Rest at the cememtery
Ed
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| Posted: Tue May 13th, 2008 01:24 am |
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Bama46
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Renee,
I just got in from Florence this evening. I did look at Soldier's Rest and John Grissom is not on a stone. I had forgotten tho how many unknowns there are there. Some from a fight that took place there and some from Shiloh.
I am sorry.
ED
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| Posted: Wed May 14th, 2008 12:15 am |
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19th Post |
renee
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Well, thanks for looking anyway. I appreciate you taking the time to look.
Renee
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| Posted: Sun Jul 27th, 2008 04:36 pm |
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20th Post |
Armchair Confederate
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I am traveling to SHiloh next week. A friend and I are going there specifically to look for the lost burial trenches. My friend is pretty good and sluething this sort of thing. He recently found the location of the battle of Lexington, TN by digging into old maps, various written sources and using good common sense.
We know that burying the dead (of both sides) was gruesome work. After two or three days the bodies would sometimes come apart when they were moved. The soldiers assigned to burial detail would likely have made quick work of it. One area we will be looking at is near the hornet's nest.
Regarding the diary entry above, does anyone have the location of that particular mass grave?
Regarding other possible burial sites for lost relations, many are buried in Corinth, MS. Perhaps a search there could yield results.
Of course, any building between Pittsburgh Landing and Corinth would have been a erstaz hospital. Those who died in these sorts of places would probably have been buried nearby. Often though, the only thing left of period structures is the foundation if that.
I had some success in getting service records and hospital records for my wife's multiple great Grandfather by writting to the Alabama state archives (he was Co. C 19th Ala. Vol. Reg. March '62-June '65). Perhaps a hospital entry would lead to the town or site where he was treated.
If he was killed outright during the battle and there were no kin to carry him off, then, like the folks said above, he would have most like ended up in one of the mass graves.
Last edited on Sun Jul 27th, 2008 04:38 pm by Armchair Confederate
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