Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-04-12
1tainn and american.
THURSDAY. APRIL IL. 1866.
TnE HORRORS OF WAR.
A saddenIng Picture of the Battlefield
of shiloh.

that a majority Of all the COgederates engaged
on that occasion 'rere from the State Of Tennes-
see; and the sepulture of their exposed
bones is a duty we owe no less to them than
TO ourselves. We should be gratified to
print the letter of Col. p. entire, but the de-
mand upon our space forbids. He says;
The TShiloh1 church building has been
torn down: only few of the old oaken logs,
out Of which il was built, and the conglom-
crate sand and gravel blocks Of stone used
as foundation-stOnes, are left 20 mark the
spot where the Methodists Of that neighbor-
hood, before the battle, were wont to wor-
ship. II was taken 10 pieces, / understand,
by the Federal sOldiery, long encamped
around it after the fight, and all the availa-
bic timber about II carried off 10 the North
by enterprising Yankees, to be manufac-
tnred into Shiloh walking canes, and other
saleable 'inementoes" and ''lrophies" of the
great struggle.
| reached the southwestern boundary Of
the battle field precisely in the centre Of the
line upon which the Confederate formed
befote going into battle. That line was
formed upon the crest Of ridge running
from the northwest 10 the southeast-from
the direction of Purdy stretching away to-
ward Hamburg. This ridge oyerlooks and
commands almost the entire field. IL is
seven or eight miles long and from its crest,
advancing TO the northeast, the descent Is
nowhere very precipitous, and few hun
dred wards from the summit OF the ridge,
the ground becomes almost level, and spreads
out into vast plain three or four miles
r. { In,
this grand and gently descending plateau,
with the dip toward the river, the principal
part of what we call the Battle OF Shiloh
was fought On either wing" and all
along the river line, the ground is more or
less PERCEPTIONS. Covered, as nearly the
whole field row is, with soft, thick carpet
Of dark green grass and clover, j think 1t Is
the most beautiful battle field ! have ever
seen. True, there are great many un-
slightly dead trees, and still more unsightly
and sadly neglected graves, lof which more
anon > but the ground, for miles on miles in
all directions, is nearly level, and is now OF
that deep emerald hue which generally only
a well advanced wheat field presents at tins
early season.
saw but little of the field on Wednesday
evening, but on yesterday, having obtained
two guides, in the persons Of Mr.. McMul-
len, of Hamburg, and Mr. Hargroyes, who
resides on the field, spent seven or eight
hours in visiting all the points Of greatest
interest, and in noting particularly the
places where the fight had been hardest, and
where there had been pretence 9f binying UdSt
numbers Of braw particularly Conteder-
ates-who fell on the 9th and 9TH Of April,
1862. wrote you some weeks ago from the
battlefield Of Corinth, giving an account of
the condition Of the Confederate and Fed
eral dead on that field. 1t was bad enough
in all conscience as you and all your readers
will remember; but for shameful neglect,
and disbonor 10 the gallant men who per
ished in what they believed TO be a just and
noble cause, il was nothing compared to
what saw Yesterday and the day before on
the field Of Shiloh, The war, during ITS
progress, presented many horrible as this
/ saw where hundreds of Confederate dead
had been rooted out Of their shallow cover
ings--l cannot call them grayes-thelr ilesh
eaten by the hogs, and their bones lying
scattered and broken and tarmpled upon IN
every direction. Ii transcends anything re-
corded in civilized history; II almost tran
scends belief. | was told by some of the
people residing near, that the hogs fed so
long, in this way, upon carriOn, that the
pork of the neighborhood became so otien-
sive il could not be eaten; and, to tins day,
some of the ladies informed me they dared
not touch any hogs meat killed in that VI
cinity: they felt or were afraid that they
would be guilty of cannibalism TO do no
In one place, about three hundred yards
south of the church, on the Rhea place,
saw where a large number (supposed TO be
one hundred and fifty, at least of Confed-
crates had been tumbled into a gully and
covered up with thin layer of dir, and
this they called burial! The wishing
rains and the hogs, together, have exposed
the bones here most sadly, Many Of the
bones are broken and shattered to pieces,
evidently since they were unearthec; but
whether done by brute or human hogs, could
not be determined Active, fiery war in
progress, has no such sad and horrible pic
ture as this. Ii was enough, if seen by all
the world, 90 steel all hearts against war for
ever, and insure perpetual peace. Fol, who
would ever think of going into battle II they
could suppose for one moment that their
friends and brethren would leave their
mortal remains, their names and memories,
10 such awful neglect as this?
All the other scattered graves of the Con-
federates, where they were covered up by
ones, twos, threes, and so on, mp TO dozens IN
a place, over the whole field, are IN the same
miserable condition. In bet one place did
zee a Confederate grave that had not been
rooted up by the hogs. That was ON the
extreme left, where, as Mr.. Hargroves IN
formed me, there are near three hundred OF
each side buried in parallel trenches Gen
erallv, the Federal dead as at Corinth, were
buried at the proper depth, and generally
with head and foot-boards, inscribed with
the names, companies, regiments, &e. Many
Of these head and ioot-boards, however, have
been DESTROYED or defaced by the annuel
fires which burn of the grass and leaves OF
those woods | saw but one Federal burial
trench where the hogs had upturned the
bones, and that was but slightly. They are
generally buried too deep for that, and IN
some places their graves are enclosed with
fences made cf logs or rails.
At the Confederate guliy-grdrc, and at all
the Confederate graves-or, rather, places
where the Confederate dead were slightly
covered up on the ground where they fell
skulls thigh, hip and leg bones, ribs verte-
brp, etc, etc, lie scattered around in all di-
rections. In one place, / saw where two
Confederates had been covered mp in the
middle of the road in another, where one
had been pitched into deep rut, or hole,
made by wagon wheels az the roadside, and
50 covered. In still another. ! saw where
two Confederates had been placed between
two standing trees, and then covered up.
And in still other places, they were thrown
by the side Of logs Jas at Corinth) and only
half covered up. IN all these places the bones
were more or less exposed. Generally, the
skulls had rolled of 10 few feet; but in
many places, they had disappeared altoge-
ther, leaving one 20 the horrible suspicion
that they had been carried off TO be made
into drinking cups, or sold TO some anatom-
ical museum 4 little boy, living in the
neighborhood, saws he saw Federal soldier
= short time ago, take the teeth from one Of
the skulls at the gully-graye and put them
in his pocket TO carry home-as trophies,
suppose
Mr. Hargroves relates the following Incl
dent: The party engaged in burying the
dead on the roadside, not far from the
church, few days after the battle, covered
up two Confederaies few feet from the
road, each with one hand sticking out above
ground They then wrote something on two
Clips Of paper, about "rgktS IN de Territories, -
and placed one between the siiflened fingers
OF each ofthe outstretched hands To cam
peie the mournfnl but not very magnani-
nous picture Of what they doubtless regarded
as Just and witty retribution, they wrote
on a board" trc hare got our rights tn The
Territories at last.e' and stuck il in the ground
Il a. = -. a hasa