USA > Georgia > The army reunion : with reports of the meetings of the societies of the Army of the Cumberland; the Army of the Tennessee; the Army of the Ohio: and the Army of Georgia > Part 16
USA > Ohio > The army reunion : with reports of the meetings of the societies of the Army of the Cumberland; the Army of the Tennessee; the Army of the Ohio: and the Army of Georgia > Part 16
USA > Tennessee > The army reunion : with reports of the meetings of the societies of the Army of the Cumberland; the Army of the Tennessee; the Army of the Ohio: and the Army of Georgia > Part 16
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24
To a considerable extent in Southern soil, and in the very presence where bold Treason reared its ungrateful head, they shall teach the children, whose fathers sought to dismember and destroy the Republic, to cherish its institutions, and to seek its honors and rewards. That Nation which respects and honors its dead, shall ever be respected and honored itself.
While the Government, by its agents, has been silently, though steadily, pressing this great work to completion, the people generally have a very imperfect conception of its scope and magnitude.
The official reports furnish, indeed, a comprehensive view, in statistics and tabular statements, of its character and progress, but these, even, come under the notice of but few, and fail entirely to satisfy the emotions of deep personal interest felt in the subject by the surviving officers and soldiers of the Army, and by the friends and relatives of the dead.
It has been suggested, and the suggestion has met with approval, that this reunion of the four great armies of the South and South-west would afford a convenient and suitable opportunity for submitting some state -. ments inore in detail respecting the disposition which has been made of their dead in the original Military Division of the Tennessee.
Ilaving had the honor of being assigned to special duty in this connection in December, 1865, and having now spent literally three years among your dead, I am here before you to present some leading facts pertaining to the origin of the work, and showing the manner, extent, and completeness of its execution.
The earliest evidence of the purpose of the Government to make
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special provision for the honorable care of those who should die in its service during the war, is found in an act of Congress, approved July 17, 1862, which provides : "That the President of the United States shall have power, whenever in his opinion it shall be expedient, to purchase cemetery grounds, and cause them to be securely inclosed, to be used as a National Cemetery for the soldiers who shall die in the service of their country." But no provision was made, either in the act or otherwise, for the payment of any such purchases, and I am not aware that any official action was ever had under it by the President.
Encouraged, perhaps, by this intimation on the part of the Govern- ment of what it purposed to do, or more probably influenced by sentiments of humanity, and by a thoughtful sense of the obligation of a great nation to its fallen defenders, the following Order was issued at Chattanooga, December 25, 1863 :
"It is ordered that a National Cemetery be founded at this place, in commemoration of the battle of Chattanooga, fought November 23rd, 24th, 25th, 26th, and 27th, and to provide a proper resting place for the remains of such as may hereafter give up their lives in this region in defending their country against treason and rebellion.
" [SIGNED] " By order of MAJOR-GENERAL GEO. H. THOMAS. " WILLIAM D. WHIPPLE,
" Brevet Brig .- Gen. and A. A. General, Army of the Cumberland."
In the following spring a similar order was issued by General Thomas, establishing another National Cemetery on the battle-field of Stone's River. Under these orders appropriate grounds were selected at Chattanooga, by General Thomas himself, and at Stone's River by Brigadier-General II. P. Van Cleve; and the work was commenced at Chattanooga under the charge of Chaplain Thomas B. VanHorn, and at Stone's River, at first, under Captain J. A. Means, of the one hundred and fifteenth Ohio Volunteers Infantry, and subsequently continued under Chaplain William B. Earnshaw. This work was, however, confined to the burial of the dead from the neighboring hospitals, and the collection of those interred upon the battle fields in the immediate vicinity. The work upon both of these cemeteries was performed entirely by detailed men from the volunteer service.
Thus far the movement remained comparatively local in its character, until October, 1865, when Major-General Meigs, Quartermaster General of the Army, issued Order No. 65, directing officers of the Quarter- master's Department to make a special report to his office of the localities and condition of cemeteries, with reference, especially, to their exact location, condition, place of deposit, and condition of records, with recommendations of the means necessary to provide for the preser- vation of the remains from desecration ; and whether the site should be continued, and the land purchased, or whether the bodies should be removed to some permanent cemetery near.
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The attempt to comply with this order in spirit as well as in letter, in a thoroughly satisfactory manner, soon rendered it manifest that a more complete and systematic exploration must be resorted to than was provided for in the ordinary routine of the Quartermaster's Department. To meet this difficulty, it was at once determined to make this work a specialty in the Military Division of the Tennessee, at that time com- manded by General George H. Thomas.
On the 26th of December, IS65, an order was accordingly issued by General Thomas directing an exploration to be made of the battle fields, cemeteries, and places where Union dead were interred in that Division, and reports thereon be submitted.
The extent and magnitude of such duty none can appreciate more fully than the officers of the armies, and even they can have but an imperfect conception of the practical difficulties that lay in the way of its efficient execution. To be of practical value, for the purpose designed, it would require not only a minute examination of every battle and skirmish ground, but a thorough, systematic exploration of all the various routes of our armies, their places of rendezvous, and of encampment; the locations of hospitals, public and private burial places, door yards, gardens, orchards, fields, and woods, from the Mississippi river to the Atlantic, and from the Ohio to the Gulf.
No efforts were spared to provide for the successful accomplishment of this duty. In all the preliminary arrangements, and during the progress of the work, it is due to the officers in every department of the service to say, that every aid and assistance was most cheerfully rendered. To ask, was to receive.
While the explorations were at once commenced and carried on in those parts of Eastern and Middle Tennessee, from which the dead had not been already removed, diligent preparation was made for extending the researches throughout the entire Division at the earliest opening of spring. Without delay, a circular was prepared, headed, " Important Information Wanted!" in which surgeons, chaplains, agents of san- itary and Christian commissions, quartermasters, ex-officers, and soldiers, who had at any time served within the limits of the Division, having knowledge of the places of burial of any Union soldiers, were requested to furnish information to aid in the search, or in identifying the unknown dead. It was added, in explanation, that this exploration was prelim- inary to the collection of the Union dead every where into National Cemeteries, on the plan of those already in process of completion at Chattanooga and Stone's River. It is proper, however, to say, that this statement was without authority from Washington, and in no way sanctioned by the terms of the Order No. 65, of October 30, from the Quartermaster-General's office. Though, perhaps, premature, as the announcement of a plan, yet, viewed as the expression of a desire, and a faith which has now been fully realized, and taken in connection with
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other measures afterwards adopted, to which I shall hereafter allude, the utterance will not be thought strange.
These circulars signed by Major-General Donaldson, Chief Quarter- master were widely distributed through the medium of the post office, and published in all the prominent newspapers in the United States.
As the replies came in from every source, the character of the informa- tion imparted new and additional interest to the enterprise. It revealed the existence of numerous records of the localities of graves, in forms more or less complete, with the names of the dead, which would not only prove of great value as guides in the search for graves, but, with proper precaution in the disinterments, would lead to -the identification of many an unknown body. Further, as preliminary aid, official reports and campaign maps were carefully consulted, and, finally, the Southern people, themselves, resident in the neighborhood where Union dead were supposed to be buried, were appealed to, and not without effect.
On the Ist day of March, 1866, the exploring party, consisting of ten persons, afterwards increased to twenty, mounted, and provided with pack mules to transport camp equipage and provisions, left Nashville, Tennessee, with the battle field of Fort Donelson as its first objective point. From this time until the following Christmas the search was diligently prosecuted with but little interruption. It embraced the prominent points on the Mississippi, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers; the various lines of railroads in the states comprising the Division ; the main routes of the armies, to the front and to the rear ; the fields of operation in the Corinth, Vicksburg and Atlanta campaigns, and the several lines of the " grand march to the sea," including battle- fields, skirmish-grounds, hospitals, and the prison pens of Andersonville and Millen or Lawton.
A brief description of the methods pursued in the exploration of those battle-fields on which the dead were buried as they fell, over a large area, may not be without interest. Take the battle-field of Shiloh, for instance, repeated in other similar cases. The entire party formed in manner of skirmish line, at short distances from each other, passed and repassed in line over the entire extent of the field, sweeping it in belts or swaths, pausing at every appearance of a grave, to notice its location, and to copy the inscription, if any. Seven days were thus occupied by the whole party on this field alone. No less than four hundred miles of travel for one man were accomplished, resulting in the discovery of one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four graves, of which six hundred and twenty were identified at the time. These graves were distributed in one hundred and seventy-eight localities, of which twenty-nine were regimental groups.
On the routes of the armies, no less care was taken. As a rule, no resi- dence or person was to be passed without the inquiry, "Do you know, or have you heard of any graves of Union soldiers in this neighborhood?"
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and all information, or hints even, was followed up with a careful explo- ration. In all cases, a minute and circumstantial record was made of all the facts necessary to serve as a guide for officers, or parties who might subsequently be employed to make the disinterments and removals.
Frequent reports, showing the results thus obtained, accompanied by tabular statements, were from time to time forwarded from the field to headquarters, and to the Quartermaster-General, at Washington.
Although this exploration was designed only as a preliminary work, a sort of outline, to be filled up afterwards by the more thorough and minute search of disinterring parties, yet the results were by no means insignificant. Not less than three hundred different places where battles or skirmishes had been fought, or troops stationed, or hospitals estab- lished, were visited. The existence and exact location of more than forty thousand scattered graves were determined, occupying more than two thousand distinct localities; over ten thousand names were copied from rude head-boards, or from inscriptions on the bark of trees, or obtained from the inhabitants, of which there probably existed no record, outside of the regimental returns, and, in many cases, not even there, graves of missing men. Between twenty-five and thirty thousand miles of army routes were passed over, including rivers and railroads. This enumera- tion does not embrace some twenty-eight thousand burials made from the larger general hospitals, of which there existed records more or less complete; or the twelve thousand upwards of prisoners of war buried at Andersonville, which had been previously reported, and a Roll of Honor published, by Colonel Moore, under the direction of the Quarter- master-General.
However imperfect and desultory the manner in which our work may have been performed, it served to furnish at least an outline of what was required to be done, and a guide in the commencement of the work of removals. It revealed the sad fact, and brought it to notice, that the 'entire country over which the war had extended its ravages, was one interminable grave-yard, and it early deepened and extended the convic- tion already felt by many, that it was the duty of Government to assume, without delay, the place of friends and relatives, and with tender care collect together and afford proper protection to the remains of those who had fallen in so noble a service, beyond the reach or care of friends. It also oftentimes revealed another fact, which added still greater force to these convictions. I refer to the marked distinctions shown, as the armies passed away, between the care and protection of Union and Confederate graves by many of the Southern people them- selves, not, it may be, culpable, but natural. The one class were buried among their friends, and on friendly soil; the other, for the time at. least, in an enemy's country, and beyond the reach of friends.
Gradually, by a natural process, the work of the future took mental form and shape. Battle-fields, localities of hospitals, routes of armnies,
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stations of troops, scattered graves, resolved themselves into definite cemeterial districts, ranged around some central spot, convenient and appropriate to receive the dead from all its limits.
Suggestions and recommendations regarding the removal of the dead were in every case embodied in the original field reports.
While this work was being prosecuted in the field, others were not idle. The record of the location of graves, the selection of sites for ceme- teries, and plans for the removal of the dead, would prove of no ultimate avail, without the authority of law to execute the work.
The visit of the Congressional Committee to Memphis, in the spring of 1866, to investigate the cause of the riot at that place, afforded a favorable opportunity to bring the subject to the attention of Congress. An informal delegation, consisting of Brevet-Major G. W. Marshall, Assistant Quartermaster, and Chaplain Wm. B. Earnshaw, of the Stone's River Cemetery, accordingly went to Memphis to consult with the gentlemen of that committee. An interview was obtained; copies of the reports already made upon the battle-fields, detailing the condi- tion of the dead, were submitted to their perusal. The facts thus made known to them, together with the personal representations made by these gentlemen, enlisted the deep interest of the Board, especially of Hon. E. B. Washburne, chairman of the committee.
The result was that a bill for the establishment and protection of National Cemeteries was then and there drawn up, or all of the leading points agreed upon. On the return of the committee to Washington, it was introduced into the House and passed; in the Senate, however, by some oversight, it failed to be called up for a third reading, and Congress adjourned without its becoming a law.
Although the bill failed at this term of a passage, the favor with which it had been received, gave assurance that the work would ultimately be sanctioned, and the Quartermaster's Department at Washington pro- ceeded to act upon it.
General Donaldson, Chief Quartermaster of the Military Division of the Tennessee, took a deep interest in the work, and his suggestions and recommendations for that Division were listened to and cordially approved by General Meigs at Washington.
On the 13th of June, 1866, another order in the series was issued by General Thomas, directing " the location, purchase and establishment of National Cemeteries and the preparation of Mortuary Records for the Military Division of the Tennessee."
In some parts of the Division, as at Chattanooga and Stone's River, the work had never been entirely intermitted, and the collection of the dead ยท in Alabama into the city grave-yards, at Montgomery and Mobile, had been commenced under the direction of the Quartermaster-General; but now the work assumed a general character. During the summer exten- sive preparations were made by General Donaldson, under the direction
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of the Quartermaster-General, for a vigorous commencement of the work, early in the fall, throughout the entire division.
Contracts were made for furnishing coffins and inclosing the grounds. And here let me remark, to correct erroneous statements that have sometimes been made, that no contracts were ever let in the Military Division of the Tennessee for the disinterment and reburial of the dead in the National Cemeteries. It was, indeed, proposed and urged as a matter of economy. On the other hand, it was plead that in this work the Gov- ernment having assumed to stand in the place of the relatives of the deceased, it should do nothing which, under similar circumstances, they would not themselves do. When bereaved friends should advertise and let by contract, to the lowest bidder, the performance of the last sad rites claimed by the sacred ties of love and affection, then it would be time for the Government to attempt to do such a thing in their behalf.
To return to a description of our work: Sites were selected and approved, and steps taken for their purchase; the country was districted, and officers detailed or assigned to conduct the work in the several dis- tricts; agents were employed from among the discharged officers and soldiers of the armny; and discharged colored soldiers employed, in most cases, as laborers.
In some portions of the Division the work was necessarily commenced in advance of the explorations. This was especially the case in Northern and Western Georgia, and in Central and Southern Alabama; but in all cases where explorations had been made, and as fast as they were extended over other portions, the several officers in charge were fur- nished with a carefully prepared list and description of the localities of graves, as far as discovered. and with such names as had been copied, and with copies of all communications of friends giving information, or inaking inquiries concerning their dead.
On the 9th day of August, 1866, an order, known as Order No. 8, describing in detail the method to be pursued in disinterring the dead and keeping the record, was issued from the office of the chief Quarter- master. It says: "The Government, in assuming to perform a work which belongs, as a special right, only to the kindred and friends of the deceased, demands of its agents to discharge the duty with the delicacy and tenderness of near and dear friends." And it closes with the remark "That all officers and men engaged in this delicate and responsible work, will take such personal interest in its faithful execution, and exer- cise such diligence and care in preserving a clear and distinct trace of every body removed, that no friend or relation of the dead may have any just cause of complaint."
Forms of burial sheets or records were devised and furnished, by the aid of which any intelligent and careful person would be able to keep an intelligible record of every body found, showing, in the case of single graves, the precise locality where they were found : and in case of a group
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or collection of graves, or of trenches, in addition, the precise order and method of burial.
Each body, known and unknown, was placed in a separate coffin, and marked to correspond with the entry upon the record sheet; and when transported to the new cemetery, a duplicate copy of this disinterment record was forwarded as a bill of lading. When the several coffins were consigned to their new graves, the designation of the section and number of grave into which each had been put, was entered on the bill in its proper place. A duplicate copy of these sheets thus completed were then to be forwarded to the office of the mortuary records for use in preparing the catalogues and rolls of honor.
The design of this minute and careful record is so important that I shall be pardoned for entering into an explanation here.
In the course of my investigations, the fact had been developed, - I quote from a report upon this subject forwarded to the Quartermaster- General, February 13, 1867, - "That in very many cases careful records of the place, names, and order of burial, had been made, and that these documents were in existence, either in the hands of those who had pre- pared them, or of friends and relatives of the deceased, to whom they had been sent, and by whom they had been most carefully preserved. I ASSUMED, THEREFORE, AS THE BASIS OF A PLAN, that a knowledge and a record of every grave, both of its locality and of its occupant, was in the possession of some living person, and that these means might be made available to restore the name, rank and regiment, and even the date of death, to the occupants of all those graves which, in the lapse of time, and by various casualties und accidents, had lost their external marks.
" Could these records have been collected for use in advance of the dis- interments, the work of recognition and identification would have been simple and easy in all cases. But, in the mean time, the Government had decided to gather up and remove the dead from these scattered graves and groups, both known and unknown alike, to national cemeteries, and were even entering upon their work.
" The question then presented itself for immediate decision, whether the bodies from all graves found without marks, should be transferred as ABSOLUTELY UNKNOWN, and no clue be left by which to trace them from an unknown grave in the new cemetery to their original resting- place, of which there might, and doubtless did, exist a full and complete record in the hand of some person, and which at some future time would be produced ?
" Manifestly, under the circumstances, this would of itself be a desecra- tion, and with a knowledge of the facts, a culpable violation of the rights of the friends and relatives.
"In order, therefore, that the work of disinternient and removal might proceed without delay, and yet all the opportunities and means to make the information I have alluded to permanently available, a very simple
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expedient was adopted, in the form of a tabular sheet of record, to be used in all cases of disinterment, and by means of which not only could each particular body reinterred in a national cemetery be traced to its original resting-place, but in case of groups, rows and trenches, the pre- cise order and relative position of each body, as originally buried, could be easily known. * * *
. " The work once done on this plan by intelligent and careful men, and the application of the principle is very simple and easy.
" These original burial sheets are all carefully preserved and filed in the office of the mortuary records, where the complete records of the division are kept, and the catalogue of each cemetery prepared."
In its practical application I can now say that this system generally proved most satisfactory, and has already led to the identification of a large number who were disinterred and removed as unknown; and in the future it promises to be valuable, so long as there remain in exist- ence any records by which a body might have been identified before removal, and so long as proper facilities are afforded for the investigation.
This plan, with full illustration and explanation, thus communicated to the Quartermaster-General, was subsequently adopted and made appli- cable throughout the United States, in General Orders No. 26, Quarter- master-General's Office, March 25, 1867; not, however, until disinterments and removals had been extensively made in other departments. In this order the Quartermaster-General very concisely and clearly expresses the idea by saying : "That the record of the disinterring officer is imperfect unless it will enable a stranger to take the bodies from their new resting- place and replace them in their original graves, in their original order."
These remarks, submitted in passing, showing the possibility of identi- fying many of the unknown dead in the future, will naturally suggest the duty of the Government to provide facilities, for some time to come, for carrying out and realizing the benefits of the system. It indeed seems a . right which the friends of the dead should demand. They may say, with the emphasis of deep feeling: "Ye have taken away our dead, and where have ye laid them?" Not that they may remove the body, but restore the name at the grave or on the record, in place of the sad inscription, unknown ; and satisfy the claims of affection by dropping a tear upon the grave.
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