Stan
... The observation of the differences in the dead had been noted by a number of different medical and field officers during the war. Weather, temperature, exposure, as well as what they were doing or had done just prior to death typically had notable characteristics results upon the dead. Included were a number of observations that Federal dead more frequently would bloat and change color much more rapidly than Southern dead.. which were observed on a number of occasions would appear to dehydrate or shrivel and give a mumified appearance...

This past year while working on a civil war related film documentary, I was able to examine a quite unusual battlefield relic recovered from Antietam... It was a human arm... reportedly picked up off the battlefield sometime after the battle by a local farmer... strangely he kept the morbid curio... it later passed through various private and public collections through the years... I examined it first hand and it still had skin, tissue, finger nails, and all still there.. but was mummified... It was an arm from the elbow joint down... it wasnt amputated, the bone ends at the joint were still intact... and the skin had a jagged edge as if torn.. not cut. A pathologist had previously examined it and he stated it was a male and estimated the person to have been around 19 years old. Most suspect it was part of a southern soldier.. since most all of the Federal dead had been quickly recovered off the battlefield... southern dead tossed in haphazard and makeshift graves on the field...

Frederick
(former paramedic, military medic, and medical historian)