Confederate Death at Gettysburg

[Delhi Rangers]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

You know what I noticed about the photo? There is a dead soldier in it who gave his all for what he believed. He laid down his life so others would not have to. That is what I noticed:(

I agree!! Thank you for posting this.

[CS Ensign]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

Just an observation - this shows one of the few instances (that I've seen anyway) of the British cartridge box with integral cap pouch attached to the front of the box, in use in the CW. British Capt. Petrie in his "Equipment of Infantry" illustrated this type as being the type issued to line regiments, but from surviving examples it seems that the most common type of box imported by North and South was the type without an attached cap box, which Capt. Petrie showed for Guards battalions. Not that the US and CS soldiers would know or care!

[2nd Lt. Samuel Teague]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

Wasn't the "sharpshooter" originally found in and around the Rose Farm, which has a wooded lot near by? Could the man have fallen in a shady area which would have been cooler and thus lessened to some extent his physical break down? This slower break down would make even more sense if he was found in the shade of some rocks in Devil's Den. Either way I have always been fascinated with these graphic images of the reality of what we are portraying. It is after all the closest examples we have of what soldiers ACTUALLY wore as they went into combat. Granted, props were introduced into some photos and looting undoubtably compromised the remains, but the basic coat, trousers, and basic equipment seems to stay intact. Every one should check out the book, Republic of Suffering, by Faust, which is a study on the culture of death and death imagery in the Civil War.
~Matt Wood

[Gallinipper]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

If I recall correctly, the original photo was captioned "Horrors of War" so it would seem our esteemed photogtapher was consciously going for shock value to depict the uglier side of the conflict.

Clearly elements in the photo were arranged for effect. But clearly he was also killed in battle, somehow. Noting his severed arm and the hand (perhaps his also)- couldn't he have been hit by a projectile AND still mutilated by wild animals in the area, before being placed for the photo?

As Patrick said, offered with proper respect to a brave soldier.....

[David Fox]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

If I might comment on the grim photo of the eviscerated boy pictured at the beginning of this thread, it has been opined that his mutilation might have been a result of hogs feeding upon the body. Certainly that's possible, but one must ask oneself: how many hogs likely survived the attentions of approximately 160,000 continuously hungry armed men closely concentrated and stationary in the area for four days? I believe it was Union artillery commander Henry Hunt who expressed that his greatest fear during the battle came at the hands, or hooves, of a herd of stampeding farmer's cattle on July 2nd. Those bovines' life expectancy must have been reckoned in hours for the same reason: meat on the hoof.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

Hallo!

No, the "sharpshooter" was originally found about 70 yards down slope from the second image site.

As the NPS expanded the deforestation, the area is now completely clear of the brush and growth, and surprisngly there is a narrow slightly "beaten" path leading down there from the stone wall that used to mark the edge of the field/woods.



Curt

[Bill Fean]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

I do not have my book with me at the moment, but there is an account of a Union officer left wounded near the Wheatfield on July 2nd and he says that he was woke up during the night by something "poking" around at him and then he saw it was a wild boar. He thrust his saber into the swine's belly and had to keep awake all night to fend off the creatures.

It appears that at some point hogs were roaming the battlefield on July 2nd. That also fits in with the dead photographed Confederate who was killed on July 2nd.


Bill Fean

[hiplainsyank]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

Didn't Gettysburg civilians report their pork tasted strange when slaughtering time came in the fall?

[David Fox]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

If these references are so, I stand corrected.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

I just did a quick search and came up with nothing on hogs and burials, except one passing reference in a speech regarding the National Cemetery, which I suspect was put there for literary effect.

On the whole I feel the same as Mr. Fox. The hogs at Gettysburg were considerably outnumbered by the men, who were also, for the most part, better armed. Although most of those men had other jobs to do, many hundreds on both sides, working for the Assistant Commissaries of Subsistence, would take a specific interest in the available livestock.

The decay of corpses is something that also can be exaggerated. Both sides had a tendency to refer to their own as relatively pristine and the enemy's as blackened and bloated. But apparently the corpses of both sides rotted in about the same way, the big factor affecting their appearance being time after death, with the enemy's bodies typically being buried after taking care of one's own.

There's some basic info on decomposition in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forensi..._decomposition but a better discussion of the specific issue on page 116 of this paper (I don't agree with everything the author says about diet, but the discussion of corpses seems pretty sound, if that's the right word): http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/ava...vilWarDiet.pdf

According to this site, while decomposition begins immediately after death, it takes a few days for a body to bloat: http://www.deathonline.net/decomposi...tion/index.htm

There's even a little film of the process showing how it works -- ironically enough, the star is a pig. Putrefaction (with noticeable bloating) doesn't set in till day 4.

Many witnesses talk about the stench of a battlefield immediately after the end of the fighting. A lot of that has to do with factors other than decomposition. More than 150,000 men fought at Gettysburg and I do not recall any account of sinks being dug in action for the approximately 200 tons of human waste that they would generate each day.

According to this site, the armies also brought 72,000 horses and mules, though many of those I believe would have remained well to the rear with the trains, the total would have brought about another 900 tons of waste to the region each day. http://www.amazon.com/Horses-Gettysb.../dp/1592180337

The expression "guts and glory" understates the impact of the guts on the battlefield.

[Bill Fean]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

The officer that I wrote about in the above post is Lt. Berzila J. Inman, Co. F 118th Pa. This comes from the book "History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, 118th Pennsylvania Volunteers.


Bill Fean

[roundshot]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

Quote: ["No, the "sharpshooter" was originally found about 70 yards down slope from the second image site."]

Wait a minute!! Actually, Mr. Frassanito has concluded that the body was found 70 yards down slope from the second image. Everyone else therefore concedes this to be THE Gospel. While I much admire his pioneering work, Mr. Frassanito also tends to be a revisionist as far as photo captions are concerned, hence this whole hog (no pun intended) thread. There is much convincing evidence to argue the sharpshooter was found at the wall and later moved downhill! Contemporary accounts lend credence to this theory as well. There was a super article in "North and South" Magazine a while back debunking Frassanito's conclusion. I'm not saying which is right, only that Frassanito is not the absolute verdict.

I tend to be of the "other" school but my vote doesn't really count. Here's the counterpoint view. Read this and the following pages: http://www.jamescgroves.com/henry/hcp1a.htm

[Gallinipper]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

So, the wild hogs at Pittsburg Landing/Shiloh and other battlefields weren't outnumbered, then? :)

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

So, the wild hogs at Pittsburg Landing/Shiloh and other battlefields weren't outnumbered, then? :)

I'd say that, like everything else, it depends on the circumstances. The neighborhood around Gettysburg was a bit more settled than Pittsburg Landing, but hogs and corpses always make a good story, even when apocryphal.

Certainly they had the run of the woods in West Virginia, if we believe Ambrose Bierce's account of the fighting there in 1861:

Once we heard shots in front; then there was a long wait. As we trudged on we passed something--some things--lying by the wayside. During another wait we examined them, curiously lifting the blankets from their yellow-clay faces. How repulsive they looked with their blood-smears, their blank, staring eyes, their teeth uncovered by contraction of the lips! The frost had begun already to whiten their deranged clothing. We were as patriotic as ever, but we did not wish to be that way. For an hour after-ward the injunction of silence in the ranks was needless.

Repassing the spot the next day, a beaten, despirited and exhausted force, feeble from fatigue and savage from defeat, some of us had life enough left, such as it was, to observe that these bodies had altered their positions. They appeared also to have thrown off some of their clothing, which lay near by, in disorder. Their expression, too, had an added blankness--they had no faces.

As soon as the head of our straggling column had reached the spot a desultory firing had begun. One might have thought the living paid honors to the dead. No; the firing was a military execution; the condemned, a herd of galloping swine. They had eaten our fallen, but--touching magnanimity!--we did not eat theirs.

The shooting of several kinds was very good in the Cheat Mountain country, even in 1861.

http://www.online-literature.com/bierce/769/

[OldKingCrow]

Re: Confederate Death at Gettysburg

AC has gone from folks posting period accounts and discussing them to long-winded suppositional narratives by Mike Schaffner on what is credible and what is to be discounted based purely on his personal deductions. It is a recurring and annoying theme, personally. Tell us Mike what is your direct experience with feral hogs and carrion ? Ever butcher a hog / deer, Mike and hang them in your camp overnight ?

You were silent when asked yesterday if you just wanted folks to stop posting period accounts ?