Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-03-16
a RIDE OVER THE RLOODY BATTLE
FIELD OF CORINTH.
THE FEDERAL AND CONFEDERATE
DEAD.

make the following interesting extract:
The first point usually visited by thoss
who stop here to examine the battlefield
is strong, earthwork known as Fort Robi
nett, Immediately north of the Memphis &
Charleston road, on the hill, just above the
first "cut," on that road, about quarter Of
mile west of the town. Here occurred, on
the morning of the 4th of October, that des-
perate conflict, so well known to immortal
fame, in which Col. VIM. P. Rogers, of the
I'd Texas regiment, commanding on that
and the previous day a brigade of Texas and
Arkansas sharpshooters.
Col Rogers fell, fighting, within the fort,
and is buried Just without the ditch. OF all
the Confederate dead on this field, Colonel
Rogers is ! am told, the only one who was
properly buried; that is to say, the only one
who was buried deep enough TO prevent the
rains from washing the dirt away and ex-
posing his bones. He, it is said, was buried
under the immediate supervision of Gen.
| Rosecrans, who had substantial paling
| placed around the grave, and headboard
with this inscription: "CoL. GEO. ROGERS,
ID TEXAS REGIMENT, KILLED OcT. 4TH,
| 1862" As will be seen from this, (which is
| an exact copy General Rosecrans made
mistake in the first or Christian name of
| Col. Rogers. 1t should read "Col William
p. Rogers, I'd Texas" &c. II will be re-
menbered by many of your readers, that
| Gen. Rosecrans, in some official correspon-
dence with Gems. Van Dorm and Price, soon
after the battle, spoke in most glowing terms
of the gallantry Of Col. Rogers, naming
him, | believe, the bravest of the
brave" He also complimented the
entire division to which the knightly and
peerless hero belonged-Maury's-a said
that the brave dead of so gallant divis-
ion should never want for fitting burial at
his hands, Or words to that effect No
doubt the General fully intended to carry
out this promise, and probably issued or
ders accordingly; but those orders were GER
tainly never fittingly carried out, as will ap-
pear to any one who rides over the field
as has appeared to hundreds and thousands
who have ridden over it since the close of
the war.
In the northwestern angle formed by the
crossing of the railroads, from Corinth out
to and beyond the outer line of works, three
and a half miles distant, the whole of this
great battlefield is dotted, here and there
in some places thick as meadow molehills
with the graves of Federal, and the ex-
posed remains of Confederate dead.
The Confederate dead, it clearly appears,
were merely covered up on the ground where
they fell. The Federal dead were all neatly
inferred, in the usual way, with head and
foot boards in every instance, and in most
cases, believe, were inclosed with wooden
palings. | saw but one Federal grave where
the bones were at all exposed. | saw but
one Confederate tamutus where the bones
generally the skulls-were not more or less
exposed or scattered around in all directions.
At the outer line Of entrenchments, where
a portion Of Maury's Division made the as
sault, saw two human skull bones, one pei
Wis, and two jawbones, lying on a stump, with
no trace of a grave or tHmHius nearer than
fifty or a hundred yards. In front of the
outer breastworks, not far from the same
spot, / saw two tumuti where some six or
eight Confederate dead had been covered up
on the side of hill. Here several of the
skulls and the feet of most Of the bodies had
been uncovered by the action of the ele-
ments, and were lying around upon the |
ground, already bleached perfectly white, |
and of course rapidly crumbling to decay.
The coPdition of these ttnlli / am told |
by gentlemen residing in the vicinity who |
have examined every part of the field, is a |
fair specimen of all the rest. In one place |
(as l was informed by Capt. Mask, of this |
town, who, with Col. Polk, rode over the
field with me) the bodies of two or three
Confederates were placed by the side of
log Ito save labor, l suppose,) and a little
dirt thrown upon them the dirt had ali
washed away, and there the skeletons lie,
wholly exposed and uncared for, like the
beasts that perish !"
A description of the condition of the re-
mains of the Confederate dead on the field
of Corinth will, l presume, answer for that
of most of those who fell in the desperate
and sanguinary battle of Shiloh and it is
earnestly to be hoped that the public jour
mails Of the South will, at an early day, call
to the subject and urge the people
to move in the matter Immediately, to the
end that remedial measures may be adopted,
and the demands of common humanity sat
isfed
All over these fields of carnage, the bones
Of brave men from every Southern States lie
exposed to the action of the elements above
ground, and are rapidly Fastening to decay.
interested in this subject, and in
seeing that justice be done in the premises,
are West Tennessee and North Mississippi,
and Memphis and New Orleans, whose gall
ant sons perished here by the hundred and
" llO lLOuodHuy III d CtuSCy WHICH, |
now forever lost, they honestly believed in
golved the salvation of a great principle
md the defence of their native land from
invasion. Shall the memory
If these brave and earnest men be thus dis
2enored? Shall that memory be held SO
heap by us, the survivors, that we may
leny to them the poor tribute of decent
,urial, and a compendious Nonument, here
Il Inr.nfh 10 IN at laoct fhair d. |
ng and their devotion to principle? Forbid |
/ Heaven
The cause for which they struggled has
.one down beneath the stern DEGREES of Fate;
nut they were none the less good men and
rue. The great, and then still open question,
# ultimate State sovereignty, for which they
lied, has been decided adversely by the su
remes. Of all earthly courts, but they were
one the less honest litigants, and are enti-
ed to the respect of all honest men every
there, however much differing with them in
pinion. The renown of their courage and
eviction, rivaling that of the bravest and
ruest knights of old, or that of the men of
ling Leonidas at the Pass" has gone
throughout all lands, !
Where eer beneath the sky of Heaven,
The birds Of Fame have flown"
Everywhere, except among those unap-
easable towards of our own land who COM
lenced fighting after the war wassover, these
oble dead have been recognized as gallant
entlemen who laid down their lives, like
he true Anglo-Saxons Of every age, for a
rinciple. Their fame has passed into histo-
Y. Without deciding whether their cause
'as, on the whole, right or erring, the intel
gent, the good and the truthful of all civ
lied countries have hailed them as heroes, !
nd held up their noble qualities to the ad-
liration of all,mankind. Shall we be less re-
pectful to our own brethren2 Shall we
eglect them? Shall we permit their bones Il
} bleach and rot above ground on all those
Again | say, forbid il. Heaven
'orbid ii, every noble, every honorable i'm
ulse of a common humanity
ACCORDING TO the report Of DR.. Bullitt,
he Health Officer of Louisville, the mortal il
ty in that city is much greater than that in p
ny other of the Union. In Louisville there P
an average number Of deaths OF sc in
200, while in Boston the mortality is % in A
,000 and q in 1000 in Philadelphia.
he Courier thinks this excessive degree of
lortality is attributable in part to the great
umber Of negroes in the city, who, recently (
eing freed, are now candidates for the un-