The Ebensburg Alleghanian. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1865-1871, 1866-02-01
PENNSYLVANIA MILITARY AGENCY,

PENNSYLVANIA MILITARY AGENCY,
NASHVILLE, Tenn, Jan. II, 1866.
Col. II. II. Gregg, Chief Transportation
and Telegraph Departments, Harrisburg,
Penn'd:
COLoNEL-In accordance with instruc-
tions contained in your communication of
December 10th, 1865, to proceed to An
dersonyille, Ga, and other points within
this Department, for the purpose of ex-
amining into and reporting upon the prac-
ticability of removing the remains of our
soldiers inferred in the National Cemete-
ries at these points, beg leave to submit
the following statement:
[ left Nashville on the 28th ult., and
proceeded to Chattanooga. Several thou
sand Union soldiers are buried at this
point, and, among the rest, large num-
Der Of Pennsylvania soldiers. The Rev.
Thomas b. Van Horne, Chaplain Z. S.
v, is Superintendent Of the Military
Cemetery at this point, and has a complete
register OF al soldiers there buried. l
expect him to furnish me with list of
the Pennsylvanians within a few days,
and will forward>the same to you. Leav-
ing Chattanooga, L proceeded by the way
Of Rome, GA, to Atlanta. There are "a
large number of soldiers buried at various
points along the Chattanooga and Atlanta
railroad at Rome, Dalton, Rcsaca, kene-
saw, ETC., but as it would have required a
great deal OF time to have obtained list
Of Pennsylvanians, did not attempt it.
There is large National Cemetery at
Atlanta, or rather near the city, but as the
weather was very inclement, aud | was
suffering from a severe cold, L did not
| visit it. From Atlanta I went directly to
AndersonV:lle, over the Macon and West
/ ern and the Southwestern Georgia rail-
roads. In regard to the practicability OF
| obtaining the remains of our buried sol
| diers throughout this Department, | am
satisfied from personal observation that
the remains can be obtained in the Gene
teries here, at Nashville, at Chattanooga,
| at .Murfrecs boro, in most cases, and gene
rally wherever the jnterments have been
made by our OWN men, and under the di-
rection of our own military authorities, as
space has, in nearly every instance, been
! given, sufficient to distinguish each sepa-
rate grave. At AndersonviIle, however,
| the manner of iuterment was such as to
render :he recognition of a corpse exceed
/ ingly difficult, if not impossible, In large
proportion Of cases. During part Of the
summer of 1864 and the early part of au-
! tumn of the same year, the burIals aver
aged about seventy five per day. Trenches
about six feet in depth were dug, and in
these the remains of our soldiers were
deposited, often upon their sides, and so
close together that the head boards which
mark the graves and which are but ten
inches in width, leave no intervening
spaces between each other for more than
one hundred graves together.
After the first few hundred burials, the
rebel authorities ceased to furnish collins
of any description, and the compact sys-
tenn of burial which / have described was
place so rapidly In these cases that moth
ing now remains of the corpses but the
bones and hair, and the color of the lat
ter is about the only means left of identi
flying them, unless the comparative size,
or some popularity in the teeth may assist
to that end Upon the whole, [ can only
say that while the removal of these re-
mains cannot 6e considered as entirely
impracticable, still the effort must neces-
sarily be attended with so much difficulty
and uncertainty as to render such a course
on the part of the friends of the deceased
at least inadvisable There are otEer diff
ficulties necessarily attendant upon the
removal of these remains, to which 1t may
not be inappropriate to refer. Coftins TO
contain Them must be procured III the
North, or at Nashville, Atlanta or Macon,
or some one of the intermediate cities, and
the cost of transportation to Anderson
vile, under the present legislative provi-
siOus of the State, must devolve upon the
friends or relatives of the deceased, as
we'll as the original cost of the same and
this, together with the fact that the line
of travel over which persons are obliged
to 60, necessitates large number OF
changes from one railroad to another, all
of which occasion more or less delay,
trouble and annoyance, not to mention ex-
pense, must be taken into consideration
by those having such an object in view.
Tie bridges have been swept away by
freshets on the line OF the road between
Chattanooga and Atlanta, viz those over
the Oostanaula and Chattahoochie rivers,
and it is doubtful whether they will be