Determining bloating corpses

[GWilson]

I apologize if this sound hokey.

I was reading the book The Bloody Crucible of Courage: Fighting Methods and Combat Experience of the Civil War by Brent Nosworthey, and I found it interesting how you can tell if a bloating corpse would be federal or confederate by the tone of their skin.


…Three days after the fighting, many of the corpses started to bloat and discolor. Jacob Roemer, who walked over the field, claimed he could distinguish a rebel from a Union soldier by the color of the skin. The confederate dead by this point were all swollen and black, while the skin of those on the union side remained white. Roemer attributed this to the lack of salt in the Confederates’ diet. Edward Moore, who fought under Stonewall Jackson, remembers seeing exactly the opposite after the First Bull Run. Here Moore claims it was the union soldiers who were swollen and blacked, while the rebels remained white! Once again, he reasoned that the difference lay in the diet of those in the opposing armies. (page 229)

Has anyone ever heard of salt affecting the color bloating bodies? I would imagine there would be some cyanosis. Time to look at some images….


Grant Wilson

P.S. Mark Jaeger, thanks for the book…

[Southern Cal]

Re: Determining bloating corpses

The citation from the book appears more anecdotal than clinical. Folks during the 1860's also believed that diseases were caused by bad air and that the presence of pus in a wound was "laudable". Perhaps only a pathologist can answer the question definitively. I'm no expert but I've seen more than a few "stiffs" in my former career. From instruction and observation, discoloration in a corpse is generally a function of time, temperature, the position of the body, the presence of insects, moisture, etc. Lividity (Livor Mortis), or the dark reddish-blue, or purple-ish discoloration that looks like bruising, is caused by blood settling in dependent parts of the body. Lividity starts immediately after death, can move if the body is moved, but becomes "fixed" in place after about 8-hours. A corpse lying prone for some time, then rolled over onto the back might well look "black". A corpse lying supine for a time might not have any facial discoloration, perhaps only in the mucous membranes of the eyes and/or the tongue. Bloating is caused by bacteria distending the body cavities, and elsewhere in the body from gases caused by the breakdown of the body fluids generating sulphur compounds during decomposition. Major trauma to the head or face, even a gunshot wound, can often cause immediate swelling and discoloration, and could make the face of a corpse look "black". The account from the book doesn't indicate whether one group of soldiers might have died early in the morning on a warm day versus the other group who might have died late the same afternon, or even the next day. Such an elapse in time betwen the deaths of two different groups could easily explain some of the difference in discoloration: the decomposition process had proceeded further in one group than another. This is just some conjecture, inferring what isn't known by what is known. Again, a forensic pathologist would probably have a more definitive answer.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Determining bloating corpses

Seems like there was a thread that may have been lost in the crash, or else I'm not searching for the right words, that talked about the myth or common wisdom that some bodies turned black or not, due to the soldiers eating gunpowder. Seems like Perryville was one battle mentioned, but it showed up elsewhere too. As I recall, the thread veered into pirates drinking rum and gunpowder, and whether eating/drinking gunpowder had any traction as a myth or real practice in the 1860s.

Don't quote me on that, it's all from memory, but I'm just mentioning it to see if it rings a bell with anyone who can think of better search terms, or recalls a primary source mentioning gunpowder-eating and corpses darkening. If not, well, nothing to see here, move right along folks...

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Determining bloating corpses

I don't have anything on the death connection, but I was just reading some accounts of Franklin's last voyage to find the North-west Passage (1846-1849 or so, with the search for the men being pretty much given up after 1854) and there are very small mentions of the crew using sprinkles of gunpowder as a seasoning for the spoiling canned foods. It wasn't very large a mention, though--and they didn't have as much gunpowder as they had coal, and by '48 (when they were digging into the poorly-tinned foods) were basically out of coal, so I don't put a lot of credence in the mention. I've returned the book to the library, but could likely dig up the reference fairly easily.

[Southern Cal]

Re: Determining bloating corpses

I've read accounts of Napoleon's troops retreating from Russia in the winter of 1812 and using discarded heavy cavalry breastplates as field expedient tureens to brew up a "soup" of horsemeat seasoned with gunpowder (David Chandler, The Campaigns of Napoleon?). Wouldn't surprise me if Billy or Johnnie occasionally did the same when they had no salt. Since a primary ingredient of gunpowder is sulphur, eating gunpowder seems a likely recipe to bloat up without dying and later smelling as if you had, from what Chinese patent remedies to this day refer to as "Wind Evils".

[FranklinGuardsNYSM]

Re: Determining bloating corpses

"Anecdotal rather than clinical" is the verdict rendered by Tony Nicastro, a Licensed Battlefield Guide at GNMP, who spent years working in the funeral industry.

[Cyclesmith]

Re: Determining bloating corpses

I would have to second Lawrence’s observation. (Rather gross stuff, but a real part of war none the less) Decay of the skin is a rather quick thing, a relatively short decay process until a phenomenon known as skin sloughage (or as the say in the mortuary business “skin slip”)… in which basically the skin slides off the body. There are many variables in this process which can effect the speed and even color of decay… included one which many dead soldiers on the battlefield during the summer are effected with…sun burn. Bloating and skin decay are IMHO two separate processes. Bloating is mainly caused by bacteria employed by the digestive system having nothing to do after death and begin consuming the corpse… the byproduct of this being gas with builds up in the abdomen until such time as the body has decayed to the point where the internal structure collapses. The skin, on the other hand, is affected by completely different bacteria in a completely different way. Delaminating the layers of skin and breaking down and liquefying cell structure until the skin…..”slips”….. icky stuff I know.

During a muti-day battle, especially during the summer months… going over the battlefield one would see corpses is various stages of decay. As far as “determining boating of corpses”, there is a lot of modern research on the topic particularly when is comes for forensic pathology. If your truly looking for information on this topic I would suggest starting with the book “Stiff; The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers” by Mary Roach, which sheds light on this topic as well as others concerning post death, in a more enjoyable sometime even humorous way. At a minimum a good read. I realize its not a CW topic book, but is a good place to start on the topic. I’m actually happy to see this post… a nature of war not often discussed, but interesting none the less.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Determining bloating corpses

I've read too many accounts of Yank corpses who's skin was as black as that of an African-American to give that account creedence. What I have read, however, is that Yanks and Rebs without jackets could often be differentiated because so many Yanks wore issue shirts, while the Rebs did not.

[Southern Cal]

Re: Determining bloating corpses

I'm reminded of the segment in Ken Burn's "The Civil War" about Matthew Brady's series of pictures he displayed in New York City, depicting the dead at (Antietam?). Before that time, the vast majority of the public had little or no contact with the gruesome side of warfare. Brady's photos of bloated, decaying corpses brought home the horrors of war, giving the lie to all those romantic and sentimental paintings of the young hero being sent off to fight for God and glory by his sweetheart. Gen. Sherman had it down: "I confess without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting - its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands, and fathers... it is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated... that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation." (from a letter written in May 1865)

[Secesh]

Re: Determining bloating corpses

The name of the book regarding this expedition is "Frozen in Time"...thanks.

Ms. Clark:

I am sure that you are aware that they recovered the remains of two of the sailors from that expedition, who were buried in the frozen ground. National Geographic did a full article on them about 18 years ago, with good detail of the sailor's clothing, which was virtually intact.

I couldnt' find the full article, but here is a link to the face of one of the sailors.

http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/m...c/beattie.html

[funhistory]

Re: Determining bloating corpses

As a full-time historian of funeral service for the past seven years, I'll offer the observation that posts #2 (Southerncal) and #8 (Cyclesmith) are completely on target regarding the subject of decomposition and deterioration of human remains. The details that they offer are accurate. Their responses can be confirmed by all of the standard texts in mortuary education (19th century as well as modern works) as well as some popular literature (i.e., Roach's Stiff). I, too, would have to agree with other posters that it's highly improbable that the generalization that the bodies of one group blackened due to diet while the others did not would be true. In modern funeral service, we know that residual pharmaceuticals in the body can increase or decrease the effectiveness of modern embalming fluids, but I haven't seen any mention in funeral literature that diet would have the same effect or be apparent as the body decomposes.