There The Skeletons Lie: Corinth in 1866

I found the following article in The Weekly Democrat of Natchez, which was published on May 14, 1866. The writer was not identified, but whoever it was painted a graphic picture of Corinth one year after the war ended:

Not the least mentionable of the ‘pitched battles’ of the late war was that which was fought in front of this grand ‘intrenched camp’ that we call Corinth, on the 3d and 4th days of October, 1862. During the past two days a portion of my sojourn here has been spent as a partial exploration of that part of the battlefield which lies in the Northwestern angle formed by the crossing of the Memphis, Charleston, Mobile and Ohio Railroads.

Wartime image of the Railroad Depot and adjacent Tishomingo Hotel at Corinth – Library of Congress

The sight that I saw of vast numbers of Confederate ‘bones’ – whose skeletons and parts of skeletons – lying exposed and bleaching on the field, in the bushes and on the hillsides, under logs and on stumps; of the neatly enclosed and well marked graves of Federal soldiers, all buried at the proper depth; and of the forest trees rent in all directions, rent and torn by shot and shell, and the storm of ‘furious war’ and of many separate and distinct, desperate conflicts, hand to hand, and muzzle to muzzle; all of these ‘sights,’ I say, are well worthy of a brief record. Besides, I have another object in calling attention to the battlefield of Corinth apart from the gratification of public curiosity, and that is to urge upon our people the propriety of collecting the bones of their dead brethren, at some suitable spot near this place, and giving them decent interment. It is estimated by an intelligent gentleman of this town, that upon the two fields of Shiloh and Corinth, in this vicinity, there are not less than 12,000 ‘Confederate dead,’ whose bones for the most part, lie bleaching above ground!

Confederate dead in front of Battery Robinett at Corinth – The bearded man on the far left is Colonel William Rogers of the 2nd Texas Infantry – Library of Congress

 

Of all the Confederate dead on this field, Col. Rogers is, I am told, the only one who was buried deep enough to prevent the rains from washing the dirt away and exposing the bones. He, it is said, was buried under the immediate supervision of Gen. Rosecrans. In the North western angle, formed by the crossing of the railroads, from Corinth out to and beyond the outer line of works, three and a half miles distant, the whole of this great battle-ground is dotted, here and there – in some places thick as meadow mole-hills – with the graves of Federal and the exposed remains of Confederate dead.

The Confederate dead, it clearly appears, were merely covered up on the ground where they fell. The Federal dead were neatly interred, in the

Post Civil War photo of the Grave of Colonel William Rogers

usual way, with head and foot-boards in every instance, and in most cases, I believe, were enclosed with wooden palings. I saw but one Federal grave where the bones were at all exposed. I saw but one Confederate timulus where the bones – generally the skull – were not more or less exposed and scattered around in all directions. At the outer line of entrenchments, where a portion of Maury’s division made the assault, I saw two human skull bones, one pelvis, and two jaw-bones, lying on a stump, with no trace of a grave or timulus nearer than fifty or one hundred yards.

In front of the outer breastworks not far from the same spot, I saw two timuli, where some six or eight Confederate dead had been covered up on one side of a hill. Here several of the skulls and feet of most of the bodies had been uncovered by the action of the elements, and were lying around upon the ground, already bleached, perfectly white, and of course, rapidly crumbling to decay. The condition of these timuli, I am told by gentlemen residing in the vicinity who have examined every part of the field, is a fair specimen of all the rest. In one place (as I was informed by Capt. Mask, of this town, who, with Col. Polk, rode over the field with me.) The bodies of two or three Confederates were placed by the side of a log, (to save labor I suppose,) and a little dirt thrown over them; the dirt had all washed away, and there the skeletons lie, wholly exposed and uncared for, ‘like the beasts that perish!’

 

After reading this article, I have a better appreciation of why cemetery associations, created to properly bury Confederate dead,  flourished in the post-war South. There was a terrible need for them.

“He’ll See it When He Wakes:” A Poem of the Battle of the Wilderness

From May 5 – 7, 1864, one of the great bloodlettings of the Civil War took place in a forbidding and isolated section of Virginia countryside known as the Wilderness of Spotsylvania. Among the estimated 61,025 Confederate troops engaged in the battle were Humphrey’s, Harris’, and Davis’ brigades of Mississippi infantry, Richard’s Mississippi Battery, and the Jeff Davis Legion of Cavalry. This poem, which I found in The American Citizen, (Canton, Miss.), April 26, 1866, is about an unnamed casualty from one of these commands that fell during that titanic struggle in the forest. The author of the poem is identified only as “SIGMA,” which is a shame, as I would love to know more about him. The man certainly had a way with words:

[For the Citizen]

“He’ll See it when he wakes”

We remember at the Wilderness, a gallant young Mississippian had fallen, and at night, and just before burying him, there came a letter from her he loved best. One of the group around his body – a minister whose tenderness was womanly – broke the silent tearfulness with which he saw the dead letter; he took it and laid it upon the breast of him whose heroic heart was stilled: ‘Bury it with him. He will see it when he wakes.’ It was the sublimest sentence of his funeral service.

Amid the clouds of battle smoke

The sun had died away,

And where the storm of battle broke

A thousand warriors lay.

A band of friends upon the field,

Stand round a youthful form,

Who, when the war cloud’s thunders peal’d,

Had perish’d in the storm.

 

“Rebel Seizure of the Works on the Brock Road” – Library of Congress

 

Upon his forehead, on his hair,

The coming moonlight breaks;

And each dear brother standing there,

A tender farewell takes.

 

But e’er they laid him in his home

There came a comrade near,

And gave a token that had come,

From her the dead held dear.

A moment’s doubt upon them press’d

The one the letter takes,

And lays it low upon his breast:

‘He’ll see it when he wakes.’

 

Oh! thou, who dost in sorrow wait,

Whose heart with anguish breaks,

Though thy dear message came too late,

He’ll see it when he wakes.

 

Ne’er more amid the fiery storm

Shall his strong arm be seen,

No more his young and manly form,

Press Mississippi’s green.

And e’en thy tender words of love –

The words affection speaks –

Came all too late: but oh! thy love –

‘Will see them when he wakes’

 

No sound disturbs his gentle rest,

No noise his slumber breaks,

But they words sleep upon his breast,

‘He’ll see them when he wakes!’

SIGMA