Quite accidentally last night, I came across the TV show on PBS concerning the Civil War dead. In typical, but predictable fashion, yet another Burns has put together a great piece of history, this time delving into what became of the war's dead on both sides.
Unfortunately, I only saw the last 30 minutes, but that was of great interest with the Union's movement toward National Cemeteries and the business of locating all the wide-scattered burial sites and identifying as many of the soldiers as possible.
And, these were numbers never before encountered.
It was interesting that black US soldiers were the ones who mostly dd the work for the North.
In the South, it was the women who did the most in recovering and reburying the Confederate dead.
I found the account of the nation's first Memorial Day observance by blacks in Charleston, SC, of particular interest. I had never heard of the Confederate prison at the Hampton Park that had formerly been for horse racing. Several hundred Union prisoners died there and in May 1865, the blacks of the city held an observance.
A fitting way to close the show.
I'll Need to see the Whole Thing. --Old Secesh
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