Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-03-13
THE BLEACHING BONES
Of q Dead Confederate Soldier
Unehrthed Aftera sleep OF More
Than Eighteen Years.
kuO1ylIle Tribune. 81

"
Knoxville Tribune 9.l
Yesterday Mr.. James Wells brought
to the city for interment in the Con-
federate cemetery the bones of a sol
der which he had dug up on his farm
two miles from Knoxville, south oil
tho river. The grave was about thirty
wards from the road in an old breast
work, and a short distance from the
residence of Geo. w. Summers, Esq,
in the 18th district.
Mr.. Wells was blowing down the
breastworks in his field and filling up
the ditch, when he uncovered the
ankle bones of a human skeleton. He
went to work carefully and uncovered
the skeleton without moving it. The
bones we're very large and in a re-
markable state OF preservation, being
blesched nearly white. The man had
been laid on his back, with his arms
extended and his feet three feet apart.
Evidently he had been stiff and cold,
with his limbs thus extended when
found on the field Of battle.
The Federal soldiers who buried
him had only shoveled off a space in
the breastworks two or three feet
down, covered the body aud face with
a coarse blanket and shoveled the dirt
upon the body. Nothing marked the
locality of the grave, and it became a
part OF the breastwerk.
When dug up yesterday the bones
were all whole and the blanket was
distinctly visible. There was no earth
in the skull, and it was perfectly white
The ribs stood up naturally,
and inside the chest was hollow and
free from earth. the blanket having
protected the body until the dirt had
and the flesh decayed. No part
OF the soldiers wearing apparel, ex
cept a few agate shirt buttons and
horn pants buttons, were found
was nothing to indicate the rank
Of the Confederate or to what command
he belonged.
An examination showed that the
had been shot through the
head, the ball entering behind the
right ear. Death must have been in.
stantaneous.
The skull was very large and the
bones were those of a very powerful
man. He must have been at least six
feet tall. His teeth were large and
we'll preserved, only one having been
extracted before death. This was
the lower jaw, left side, about
half way back. The mans right arm
had been broken below the elbow,
probably when he was a boy. The
bone had healed again and a large
knot had grown on the fracture. The
bore was about fifteen inches
long. The hair had almost entirely
1eeayed, and from the remains it was
impossible to determine the original
This Confederate soldier was killed
m December Sd, 1863, the day OF the
of Fort Saunders. He was
close in front of the Federal
breast works, and was one Of five or
six not carried off the field by his
comrades when they were repulsed.
The other bodies were taken up a few
years ago and placed in the Conieder-
ate cemetery in Knoxville. There is
yet another buried in a field near, but
It's exact locality cannot be found. The
dead soldier yesterday exhumed prob
ably belonged to General Wheeler's
brigade, though part of another COM
nand had fortified south of the river.
On the day OF the battle OF Fort Saun-
lers, the division south Of the river
made a simultaneous charge on the
Immediately south Of the city,
but were repulsed at the point where
these Confederates were killed.
The writer remembers going over
The battle field a few days after Long
army had abandoned the siege
IF Knoxville, and finding here and
there pools of blood where Federals
and Confederates had been killed and
wounded. He remembers coming upon
4 party of Federals, who had been
burying the dead left upon the field by
The Coufederates, and hearing one of
them say:
W have just buried the big rebel
up there on the bill He was the
"reb" l ever saw"
This was probably the one whose
we're inferred in the Confederate
cemetery yesterday.