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Re: 1864 Battle of Fort Pillow
In Response To: Re: 1864 Battle of Fort Pillow ()

Nancy --

The individual you spoke with doesn't seem to understand that Confederate soldiers would not have been removed to a National Cemetery, nor would it make sense to take them inside Federal lines to the City of Memphis. I tend to believe that Hugh's initial thoughts about this are correct. Standard, time-honored practice has been to bury soldiers on the battleground where they lost their lives.

After the war graves of U.S. soldiers in scattered locations throughout the South were identified and the remains sent to ground later dedicated as National Cemeteries. Stories circulated in the North that Southerners had desecrated these graves, which needed government protection and care. That prompted the creation of National Cemeteries. Of course scattered graves of Confederate soldiers remained where they were.

Exceptional stories exist about parents or widows removing bodies to a home burial ground, but as you suggest, this was difficult or impractical for obvious reasons. During the days or weeks it took for news to get home and for family members to make the journey, hastily buried bodies in shallow graves would have decomposed rapidly, making it virtually impossible to identify without modern forensic assistance. Also, without a sealed coffin in which to transport a body, transportation could not have been tolerable in warm weather.

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1864 Battle of Fort Pillow
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