Sullivan Ballou: The Macabre Fate of a American Civil War Major
6/12/2006 • America's Civil War
The disrespect paid to Major Sullivan Ballou after his death was doubtless at least partially brought on by early-war propaganda that had each side believing the other was less than human.
By Connatix
Rhode Island Governor William Sprague stared into the empty grave with a mixture of shock and horror. Where was the body? The governor and his accompanying party had departed Washington City that March 19, 1862, morning for the old Bull Run battlefield, with the intent of retrieving the bodies of several 2nd Rhode Island officers left behind the previous summer after the Civil War’s first major fight.
When they arrived, however, the remains of Major Sullivan Ballou of the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry were nowhere to be found. Upon further investigation, Sprague discovered that Ballou’s remains had been exhumed and desecrated by Confederate soldiers that winter. The morbid incident launched a congressional investigation and remains a controversy shrouded in mystery.
Sullivan Ballou has become famous in Civil War lore for the poignant letter he reportedly wrote to his wife, Sarah, a few days before he was mortally wounded. The missive was celebrated in Ken Burns’ watershed PBS Civil War series and is the focal point of dozens of Web sites, though what happened to his body after he died is seldom mentioned.
http://www.historynet.com/sullivan-ballou-the-macabre-fate-of-a-american-civil-war-major.htm
