Question about burial pits

[ripley rebel]

I couldn't think of a more fitting way to spend memorial day than driving around the battle of Shiloh. While watching the film and then while viewing the battlefield a question popped into my mind and I have been wondering about it since. Were both union and confederate soldiers buried in the same pit or did they bury them separately. The reason I ask is most union soldiers were unearthed and reburied in the us cemetery and the confederates were left in the pits. Grant rejected Beauregard's request to remove the confederates because they had already been buried. It doesn't' really say there were separate pits but how could they tell much later the difference between union and confederate soldiers. Anyone have an answer?

 

[Daveslem]

Buttons, uniform cloth, etc. are obvious answers but if none of those were present they could usually determine what side the deceased fought for by looking at his underwear. Northern troops wore wool underwear while their Southern foes wore those made of cotton. I read this in Greg Coco's fantastic book, A Strange and Blighted Land, the story of the battle's aftermath. This was a book I just couldn't put down, highly recommended, courtesy of Thomas Publications .


http://thomaspublications.com/details.asp?BID=129