In a battle where confederates left the field in retreat how were their bodies handled by the union soldiers? Were they just dumped in mass graves? I believe in the early part of the war the dead were left to bury the dead. There was no organized burial system. Can you imagine the number of MIA? They did not have dog tags and bodies may have been blown to bits. How did both armies even identify the dead when they won the battle and the ground? If you are talking thousands of dead bodies what happened to them in any major battle?

John