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File Details: AJUWm, 1400 DPI, TIFF, Original Negative, 39.3 Mb

Image ID: AJUW

Credit:

by Reekie (John)

Date:

1865.04.16

Negative Size:

4.5 in. x 10 in. stereo

Equipment:

canteen; shovel; stretcher

Locations & Lines:

Gaines Mill battlefield VA; Virginia

Military Units:

US Army

Sources:

Library of Congress; USAMHI – MOLLUS collection

Memories of the War. No. 918. Collecting the remains of the dead, Gaines’ Mill, Va. [Gardner Co. album card]

Photographic War History. The War For The Union. 1861-1865. No. 918. Soldier’s Skeletons. When the National Cemeteries were established, the remains of the Union soldiers were disinterred from the hastily made graves on the battlefield and place in the National Cemeteries; this view shows the work of disinterring the remains. [Taylor & Huntington stereo card]

Photographic War History. The War For The Union. 1861-1865. No. 918. Collecting Remains of the Dead. This is a ghastly view showing the process of collecting the remains of Union soldiers who were hastily buried at the time of the battle. This is a scene on the battlefield months after the battle, when the Government ordered the remains gathered for permanent burial. The grinning skulls, the boot still hanging on the fleshless bones, the old canteen on the skeleton, all testify to the hasty burial after the battle, Looking on this scene you can easily understand why, in all National Cemetery, there are so great a number of graves marked “Unknown.” These are the “unknown” heroes of the war, who “died that our Nation might live.” [Taylor & Huntington stereo card]

African-american workers collect the months-dead remains of Union soldiers.

Gardner No. 918.

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