Western sentinel. [volume] (Winston [i.e. Winston-Salem], N.C.) 1856-1886, 1866-05-11
SHILOH.
TRE HORRORS OF THE BATTLE FIELD.

has taken ride over the field of Shiloh.
and contributes many interesting and
isome horrible facts to that journal. He
!says:
The whole face of the country between
Corinth and Pittsburg Landing is SCARED.
scratched and wounded, with almost indel-
lble traces Of ruthless war. Lines of
earthworks and entrenchnients across all
the 'sthonsand and one" roads Zone chin
neys, burnt AND blackened trees, and
heaps OF rubbish where once stood smiling
homesteads; whole forests peeled, or
"barked," ]" are deacened by the encamping
iseldlery, TO make themselves comfortable
with bark beos; dwellings, stores, and
ontnouses IN every stage OF dilapidation
aad decay fields tencelcss and untended.
are rapidly growing wild again-these
are some .f the eviderces of the fierce
struggle.
OF the horrors OF the field he writes:
Ihe war during it's progress presented
many horrible aspects, but none so borr-
bic as tas. | saw where hundreds of
Confederate dead had been rooted out OF
their shallow coserines-I cannot call them
gray es-thelr flesh eaten by the hogs, and
their bones lying scattered and broken
and trampied hpon in every direction.
1t transcends anythings recorded in civil
lzed history; it almost transcends belief.
was told by some Of the people residing
near that the hogs fed SO long in this way
upon human carron, that the pork became
80 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 were afraid,
that they would be guilty Of cannibalisr
to Go so.
| La one place, about three hundred
yards south of the church, On the Reall
place, saw where a large number Sub
posed to be $50 at leas) of Confederates
had been tuinbled into gully and cover
ed up with thin layer of dirt The wash
ing rams and the hogs together have ex-
posed the bones here most sadly. Many
of the bones are broken and shattered to-
pieces. Evidently since they were un-
earthed. All the other scattered graves
OF the Confederates, whore they were Gov
vered mp by one, twos, threes, and SO OR
up to dozens in place, over the whole
field, are in the same miserable condition.
En- but one place did [ see a Confederate
grave that had not been rooted up by the
hogs. That was on the extreme left,
where, Mr. IIargroves informed me there
are near three hundred Of each side bur-
led in parallel trenches. Generally the
federal dead, as at Corinth, was buried at
the prober depth, and generally with head
and foot boards, Inscribed with the names,
companies, regiments, Sc. Many of these
head and foot boards, have been destroy
ed or defaced by the annual fires which
burn off the grass and leaves of those
woods l 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 of logs and rails.
AT the confederate graves-or rather.
places where the confederate dead were
slightly covered up on the ground where
they fell-skuls, thigh, hip, and leg,
bones, ribs, vertebrae, etc., lie scattered
around in all directions. En- one place [
}saw where two confederates had been
covered up in the middle of the road ;.
III another where one had been pitched
into u deep rat or hole made by wagon
wheels at the roadside and so covered.
saw where two contederates were placed
/ betw cen two standing trees and then COW
cred up land in still other places they
were thrown beside logs, as at Corinth,.
and only half covered up. In all these
Iplaces the bones were more or less expo
sed.