Newly Unearthed Civil War Bones Speak Silently to the Grim Aftermath of Battle

[rangerrebew]

Newly Unearthed Civil War Bones Speak Silently to the Grim Aftermath of Battle
What the amputated limbs and full skeletons of a Manassas burial pit tell us about wartime surgical practices


By Ryan P. Smith
smithsonian.com
June 20, 2018
 

Perhaps no feeling was more horrifying to a soldier in the Civil War than the realization deep into a charge against the enemy that the assault was doomed. Such was the case for the scores of Union men who surged toward Stonewall Jackson’s forces at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August of 1862. With Jackson’s men dug in along the Briscoe Station railroad grade, the Union foot soldiers were literally fighting an uphill battle. The distance they had to traverse proved too great, and the enemy’s rifle muskets too accurate, for success to be feasible. Chaotically and desperately, they turned tail as unrelenting gunfire continued to cut them down.

Read more: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/newly-unearthed-civil-war-bones-speak-silently-grim-aftermath-battle-180969413/#5gSwQBGY2ZipfreS.99

[TomSea]

Indeed, grim discovery, the poor soldiers had it so hard on both sides.

Civil War battlefield discovery: Surgeon's burial pit reveals soldiers' remains, amputated limbs
By James Rogers | Fox News

Civil War discovery: Surgeon's burial pit revealed

Two civil war soldiers buried among a battlefield surgeon's pit have been found at Manassas National Battlefield Park, in Virginia. The excavation shed some light on the two soldiers and the Second Battle of Bull Run.

The remains of two Civil War soldiers have been discovered in a surgeon’s burial pit at Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia.

“This is the first time in history that a surgeon’s pit at a Civil War battlefield has been professionally excavated and studied,” explained the National Park Service, in a statement. “It is also the first time that killed-in-action Civil War soldiers have been found in an amputated limb burial pit.”

Read more at: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/06/21/civil-war-battlefield-discovery-surgeons-burial-pit-reveals-soldiers-remains-amputated-limbs.html