Cold Mountain Casualty Wall

[Tyler]

Ok, I know the movie's been mulled over a lot, but I have a new question that I don't think was raised already. There's a scene in the movie where Ada goes and looks over a wall of a building which has a bunch of confederate CDVs and tintypes (without cases). The way I interpreted it, the wall serves as a sort of casualty report with pictures of the dead soldiers hung there.
Does anyone know of this happening in the war at all??? Thanks.
-Tyler Putman

[markj]

Re: Cold Mountain Casualty Wall

Not as such, as far as I know, but two somewhat similar systems were in place:

The 19th Century version of "Fox" or "CNN" were "breaking news" bulletin posters posted outside of newspaper offices (as well as "extra" editions). There are photographs of these in the Time-Life "silver series" on the war. Accordingly, updated casualty reports certainly would have been posted as they came in.

Toward the end of the war, many Southern papers published personal notices requesting information about unaccounted individuals. The Richmond "Enquirer" carries hundreds of these notices from family and friends--they're often quite heart-breaking.

And, of course, there is the famous "Children of the Battlefield" case. After the Battle of Gettysburg, the body of an unidentified Federal soldier was found still clutching a photograph of his children. The image was subsequently reproduced and widely distributed throughout the North and, in time, the dead man was identified as Amos Humiston of the 154th New York. The most comprehensive examination of this story was recently published by Mark Dunkelman and should be available through your favorite bookseller. To my knowledge this was the first time an "unknown" was ID'd in this fashion.

Hope this helps,

Mark Jaeger

[billwatson]

modern tradition

That "casualty wall" is modern, and reflective of this observation made a few years ago by someone on one of these lists: People of the Civil War era were comfortable around death, and uncomfortable around sex, and their folkways reflect this. We in this century are exactly the opposite. The idea of a shrine and personal expressions of grief are very much 1990s and very much the product of a society that has lost touch with what used to be extremely common rituals that were meant to meet the emotional needs of the bereaved. I'd go so far as to say that the idea of putting a ribbon and a note on the door of the telegraph office or whatever to express personal grief would strike someone from 1864 as odd. Not because they didn't express their grief publicly, but because there were well traveled channels for public grief to pour through, extended periods of mourning with clothing that told the world about your grief, etc.

We tend to keep death at arms length and then be overwhelmed by it when it touches us. Our ancestors were on much more familiar terms with it.

"Gone with the Wind," for all its faults, conveyed the same idea of "We are bleeding ourselves to death" with the crowd of folks awaiting the first proofs off the press of the death rolls -- lists and people grieving. The "Cold Mountain" approach is really 21st Century: No people, just a wall with flowers. Pretty neat.

Here's a website describing the modern thing:

http://www.temple.edu/isllc/newfolk/shrines.html

I hope this is of some interest. I find it useful to understand the differences between then and now, as a key to unlocking the secrets of the past. Sometimes behavior and outcomes make no freaking sense at all unless you have the cultural context.

[Bill Cross]

Re: modern tradition

Good stuff, Bill W!

There are several concrete examples of how Victorians differed in their view of death from us. One is the common practice of "death masks" and later death portraits. In fact, in 1973 a remarkable book was published entitled Wisconsin Death Trip that included many glass plate negatives of funerals showing a more open and public attitude about death and dying. The book has just been re-issued and is worth a look.

Another difference is shown in the rise of elaborate and elegant cemeteries. about 30 years during the early 19th Century. Prior to then, burials were less formal (Mozart was buried in a pauper's grave, its location unknown). The Victorians believed that focusing on death was uplifting to the soul, and so they would sojurn or picnic at these new parks for the dead to reflect on the transitory nature of life.

This is not to imply our ancestors were any less feeling or casual about death, only that it was more common for them, something that could come at any hour without warning. They were in some ways more sentimental in that respect, perhaps because life was so fragile, with the famous example of the crowds waiting at the dock in New York City for the final installment of Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop. Reports detail how women fainted and men wept openly at the news of Little Nell's death.

[LWhite64]

Re: Cold Mountain Casualty Wall

I agree with Bill's comment about Gone with the Wind, the Casualty report scene is one of the best scenes in all of Civil War Cinima in my opinion. Actually there were several really good little scenes in that movie, that we tend to over look because of other reasons. One of the historical advisors for GWTW was an Atlanta area historian, Wilbur Kurtz. I have recently been going through some of Kurtz's papers and he was something else. The man had our dream at his disposal. He was able to visit battlefields, take notes, etc with the Veterans at his side.

As to the casualty reports themselves, they would be posted at the PO, or make there way around with the papers, but Ive never seen anything with the photographs. Photographs as well all know were a very big deal back then, and if a loved one died, you would just leave it hanging on the wall of the General Store/Post Office. It would be a treasure in the home. A list might be there from the telegraph office or from the local newspaper, but that would be it.

Lee

[Bill Cross]

Re: Cold Mountain Casualty Wall

Photographs as well all know were a very big deal back then, and if a loved one died, you would not just leave it hanging on the wall of the General Store/Post Office.

Ambrotypes, the most-popular form of photography during this period, are images on a glass plate. Their cousin, tintypes, are the same process on a piece of metal. But the underlying silver nitrate process is senstive to light, and will fade if exposed to it for prolonged periods. In fact, thousands of war images were lost when they were sold off to greenhouses, fading over time to clear glass. So Lee and Bill W are quite right to question the accuracy of this scene, though as I always tell my kids when they identify a discrepancy in a film "IT'S ONLY A MOVIE!!!" :tounge_sm

[1stMaine]

Re: Cold Mountain Casualty Wall

Comrades,

My kids and I still enjoy picnicing at several of the older cemetaries up here in Maine. Those great monuments, cenotaphs, mausoleums and statuary were meant to be seen as more than simple grave markers. They are all fine examples of the artist and sculptor's skills. They are there to be visited and remarked upon, and to neglect them and leave them unseen, unattended, is to me more of a slight than one might imagine.
Modern folks have lost touch with death and dying, fleeing from it as though putting it out of sight and mind might somehow keep it from visiting. The acceptance of death as a part of our existence was seen by our ancestors as healthy and worthy of consideration. It doesn't mean that they dwelt constantly upon it, but it wasn't feared or withdrawn from in the manner that it is today.
Take the time to visit the local cemetary and read the names therein. Spend some time studying the sculptor's and stone-cutter's work. Take your kids and talk to them about it. Bring along a picnic and make a day of it, for there is much to be reflected upon.
respects,