War from the Inside: The Story of the 132nd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in the War for the Suppression of the Rebellion, 1862-1863Hitchcock, Frederick L. (Frederick Lyman)
History
War from the Inside: The Story of the 132nd Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry in the War for the Suppression of the Rebellion, 1862-1863
Hitchcock, Frederick L. (Frederick Lyman)
Hitchcock, Frederick L. (Frederick Lyman); Pennsylvania -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives; Pennsylvania -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Regimental histories; Soldiers -- Pennsylvania -- Biography; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives;
We witnessed the burying details gathering up and burying the dead. The
work was rough and heartless, but only comporting with the character of
war. The natural reverence for the dead was wholly absent. The poor
bodies, all of them heroes in their death, even though in a mistaken
cause, were "planted" with as little feeling as though they had been so
many logs. A trench was dug, where the digging was easiest, about seven
feet wide and long enough to accommodate all the bodies gathered within
a certain radius; these were then placed side by side, cross-wise of the
trench, and buried without anything to keep the earth from them. In the
case of the Union dead the trenches were usually two or three feet deep,
and the bodies were wrapped in blankets before being covered, but with
the rebels no blankets were used, and the trenches were sometimes so
shallow as to leave the toes exposed after a shower.
No ceremony whatever attended this gruesome service, but it was
generally accompanied by ribald jokes, at the expense of the poor
"Johnny" they were "planting." This was not the fruit of debased natures
or degenerate hearts on the part of the boys, who well knew it might be
their turn next, under the fortunes of war, to be buried in like manner,
but it was recklessness and thoughtlessness, born of the hardening
influences of war.
Having now given some account of the scenes in which I participated
during the battle and the day after, let us look at another feature of
the battle, and probably the most heart-breaking of all, the field
hospital. There was one established for our division some three hundred
yards in our rear, under the shelter of a hill. Here were gathered as
rapidly as possible the wounded, and a corps of surgeons were busily
engaged in amputating limbs and dressing wounds. It should be understood
that the accommodations were of the rudest character. A hospital tent
had been hurriedly erected and an old house and barn utilized. Of
course, I saw nothing of it or its work until the evening after the
battle, when I went to see the body of our dead colonel and some of our
Scranton boys who were wounded. Outside the hospital were piles of
amputated arms, legs, and feet, thrown out with as little care as so
many pieces of wood. There were also many dead soldiers--those who had
died after reaching the hospital--lying outside, there being inside
scant room only for the living. Here, on bunches of hay and straw, the
poor fellows were lying so thickly that there was scarce room for the
surgeon and attendants to move about among them. Others were not allowed
inside, except officers and an occasional friend who might be helping.
Our chaplain spent his time here and did yeoman service helping the
wounded. Yet all that could be done with the limited means at hand
seemed only to accentuate the appalling need. The pallid, appealing
faces were patient with a heroism born only of the truest metal. I was
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