A Boy's Experience in the Civil War, 1860-1865Hughes, Thomas
History
A Boy's Experience in the Civil War, 1860-1865
Hughes, Thomas
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives, Confederate
While personal travel through the lines was as shown difficult and full
of excitement and trials, communication by letter was easy and frequent.
This was by way of flag of truce boat. Every letter however was opened,
read and stamped as inspected and if it was free from suspicion and
about personal matter only it reached its destination. Any suspicious
circumstances however such as ambiguity of expression, or anything of
hidden meaning which might convey information regarded as detrimental to
the government subjected the letter to oblivion.
After the war closed the condition of the Confederate graves in
Hollywood cemetery was so deplorable that a general call was extended to
all ex-Confederate soldiers in Richmond to volunteer to put them in
condition. At the time appointed great numbers assembled at the Cemetery
for the purpose, including very many old cadets. Each particular
division of the graves had a certain number assigned to it and there
fell to the cadets a plot in the lower ground comprising several hundred
graves. Each one of the cadets was furnished a hoe and the task that at
once confronted us was how we were to distinguish the precise location
of each grave. None of these graves were marked and all any of us knew
was that wherever there was any indication of the grave, there had been
placed the remains of a Confederate soldier. It seems to me that however
loving our motive, we had better left undone our volunteer task, for all
the workers in common solved their difficulty in identifying exact
outlines of graves by raising at regular and even intervals the little
mounds that were supposed to cover the places of interment, so that if
any indications previously existed as to the precise location of any
grave whereby some one familiar with the surroundings would have
identified it, these were effectually destroyed by this service in
putting in decent order the burial places of the dead. And it was
utterly impossible thereafter to tell the exact resting place of any
whose grave was unmarked, the condition of very nearly all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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