Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1866-05-02
Shiloh. S .
The Lingering Horrors of the
Rattle Field.

Roger A. Pryor, of the Memphis Argus.
has taken a ride over the field of Shiloh,
and contributes many interesting and
some horrible facts to that journal. He
says:
1.-The whole face of the country be-
tween Corinth and Pittsburg Landing, is
SCARED, scratched and wounded with al
most indelible traces of ruthless war
Lines of earthworks and entrenchments
across all the Thousand and one" roads;
lone chimneys, burnt and blackened
trees and heaps of rubbish, where once
stood smiling homesteads; whole forests
peeled or "barked" and deadened by the
encamping soldiers, to make themselves
comfortable with bark beds; dwellings.
stores and out-houses in every stage of
dilspidation and decay; fields, fenceless,
and INTENDED, are rapidly growing
wild again-these are some of the eY-
licences of the fierce struggle.
The war during its progress presented
many horrible aspects, but none so hor.
rible as this | saw where hundreds of
Confederate dead had been rooted out of
| their shallow coverings-I cannot call
them graves-their flesh eaten by the
| hogs, and their bones lying scattered and
broken and trampled upon in every di-
rection. 1t transcends anything recorded
in civilized history; it almost trauscends
belief. l was told by some of the people
residing near, that the hogs fed so long
in this way, upon human carrion, that
the pork became so offensive that it
could not be eaten and to this day,
some of the ladies informed me, they
dare not touch any hogs meat killed in
ha r-sn Fhor- afraid thof rhnu
would be guilty of cannibalism TO do so.
In one place, about 300 yards south
of the church, on the Rhea place, l saw
where a large number supposed to be
l60 at least) of Confederates had been
tumbled into gully and covered up with
thin layer of dirt. The washing rains
and hogs, together, have exposed the
bones most sadly. Many of the bones
are broken and shattered to pieces, evil
IDENTIFY since they were unearthed. All
the other scattered graves of the Confed-
crates, where they were covered up by
ones, twos and threes, and so on, up TO
dozens in a place, over the whole field,
are in the same miserable condition. In
but one place did l see a Confederate
grave that had not been rooted up by
hogs. That was on the extreme left,
where, as Mr.. HargrOyes informed me-
there are nearly 800 of each side buried
IN parallel trenches.
Generally the Federal dead, IS at Cor
NTH, were buried at the proper depth,
and generally with head and foot boards,
inscribed with names, companies, regi-
ments, etc. Many of these head and
foot boards have become destroyed or de-
faced by the annual fires which burn off
the grass and leaves of those woods. I
saw but one Federal burial trench where
the hogs had upturned the bones and |
that was but slightly. They are general |
ly buried too deep for that, and in some
places their graves are enclosed with fem |
ees made of logs or rails.
At the Confederate gully-grave, 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, hips and leg bones,
ribs, vertebrse, ETC., lie scattered around |
in all directions. In one place l saw
where two Confederates had been covered |
up in the middle of the road; in another
where one had been pitched into a deep
-ut or hole made by wagon wheels at the /
'oSd side, and so covered mp. In stiil I
another, saw where two Confederates
had been placed between standing trees,
md then covered up. And in still 9th
sr places, they were thrown by the side
If logs, as at Corinth) and only half
covered up. In all these places the |
ZONES were more or less exposed.