P 323 Appendix C
The Confederate Dead
Exactly four years to the day after the Battle of Shiloh, Memphis Argus editor, John P. Pryor toured the battlefield. he noted thatt most of the Confederates had been buried in shallow graves of twos & threes, up to a dozen.
Virtually all of the smaller graves had been uprooted by wild hogs and everywhere were scattred skulls, leg bones, and vertebrae.
The larger buriel trenches were deeper and with one exception, had not been bothered. "Near the Rhea (sic) field about 150 Confederates had been tumbled into a gully and covered with a thin layer of soil," he noted.
Hogs and washing rains had exposed many of the bones.
Fifteen years after the battle, in 1877, the state of Tennessee appointed a commission to identify Confederate graves at the battle field. The task proved depressing, for much deterioration had taken place.. "Near Mr. Punts house, where there are some whites post's put up by the federals, are two large piles ans two smaller ones, supposed to contain 300 (bodies) said to be troops from Texas. Many of these ghastly relics are exposed to the light of the sun", reported the committee. A great many single graves were found in gullies and covered by only a few shovelfuls of dirt.
"Near Mr. House's farm, two milesfrom Shiloh Church, are many remains, perhaps 250 or 300, all within a quarter mile of his house. Most of these are exposed, some washed off by rains others rooted by hogs." The committee concluded that graves could be found for about a thousand men.
About 1880, a few prominent men arranged a mass picnic at Rhea Springs. Several thousand people were in attendance., and the idea was to identify Confederate graves. About noon, a terrible storm came up, dispersing the crowd.. in getting home , several people, including some children, were killed; the project was never again attempted.
When the federal government established the park in the 1890's, only five trenches could still be identified. Park officials suspect they know of a sixth trench on private property. In an old National Park handbook by Albert Dillahunty, it was reported that one trench near MCClernand's camp contained the bodies of 571 Confederates buried seven deep. I have never been able to validate a source for this statement in years of study., and I have long since concluded that it is more legend than fact.