Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-05-24
Horrors OF the Battlefield.

Col. J. P. Pryor, of the Memphis argus, has
taken a ride the field of Shiloh, and contrib
utes many interesting and some horrible facts to
that journal. He says
''The whole face of the country between Cor
NTH and Pittsburg and Pittsburg Landing is scar
red, scratched and wounded with almost indelible
traces of ruthless Lines of earthworks and
intrenchments 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 soldiery to make
themselves comfortable with bark beds dwelling,
and decay fields, fenceless and untended, are
rapidly growing wild again-these are some of the
evidences of the fierce struggle"
Of the horrors of the field, he writes
"The war, during its progress, presented many
horrible aspects, but none so horrible as this I
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 direction. It transcends
anything recorded in civilized history it almost
transcends belief. was told by some of the peo-
pie residing near that the hogs fed long in this
way upon human carrion that the pork became SO
offensive it could not be eaten; and to this day,
some of the ladies informed me, they dare not
touch any hogs meat killed in that vicinity they
felt or afraid they would be guilty of canni-
balism to do SO
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 at
least of Confederates had been tumbled into a
gully, and covered up with thin layer of dirt
The washing rains and the hogs, together have
exposed the bones here most sadly. Many Of the
bones are broken and shattered to pieces, eviden-
ty since they unearthed.
'All the other scattered graves of the Confed-
crates, wheret they were coveredup by ones, twos,
threes and so on up to dozens in place, over the
whole field, are in the same miserable condition.
In but one place did I see Confederate grave
that had not been rooted up by the hogs. That
was on the extreme left, where as Nh. Hargroves
informed me, there are near three hundred of each
side buried in parallel trenches. Generally, the
Federal dead, at Corinth, were buried at the
proper depth, and generally with head and foot
boards, inscribed with the names, companies re-
giments, &c. Many of these head and foot-boards
however, have been destroyed or defaced by the
annual fires which burn off the grass and leaves
of those woods. [ saw but one Federal burial
trench where the hogs had upturned the bones,
and that but slightly. They generally
buried too deep for that, and in places their
graves enclosed with fences made of logs OF
rails.
cat the Confederate gully grave, and at all the
Confederate graves, rather places where the
Confederate dead we're slightly covered up on the
ground where they FELL skulls, thigh, hip and leg
| bones, ribs vertebree, &c, &C., lie scattered
around In all directions In one place [ saw where
two Confederates had been covered up in the
middle of the road in another, where had been
pitched into deep rut or hole, made by Wagon
wheels at the roadside, and so covered In still
another, saw where two Confederates had beer
cred up and in still other places they thrown
by the side of logs las at Corinth), and only hal
covered up. In all these places the bones were
more or less exposed. .~-ee.-rs