IDENTIFICATION OF FALLEN SOLDIERS (Cassville Cemetery) by Barbara Timm

I have often wondered how the armed forces kept track of the vital statistics of those lost in battle before dog-tags came along. They must have been one of the most practical inventions of all time. See A Short History of Identification Tags

In this cemetery there are 19 rows of unmarked Confederate graves containing 364 soldiers. Only one grave is marked. This is just a tiny cemetery, but I assume it is representative of many others, both in the South and the North. It stands to reason, then, that many families never received any details whatever of their loved ones' deaths or burial locations. Many mistakes of identity were probably made.

I asked my Internet friend and Civil War authority, Dave Frederick about this and he answered:

"Your ideas about identification are correct. It was a civil war custom to carry a piece of paper with vital information in a breast pocket, but it didn't seem to help at all. The care that was taken varied widely. There are something like seventeen thousand Confederate unknown soldiers buried at Gettysburg. The 1863 Union campaign for Chattanooga was marked by the best record keeping of the war. The Confederate Army of the Tennessee was hopelessly outnumbered, but held the strategic ground for months by strategically brilliant cat-and-mouse maneuvers. The armies didn't move very far, or very fast, for months. Clerks were able to establish regular offices and paperwork flows. Seemingly none of them could spell, but it was about as perfect as it could be.

"Your description of the cemetery intrigued me, as 364 is a lot of burials. Did you know that the Confederacy won a token victory near Cassville in Sherman's Atlanta Campaign of 1864?

"The battle was called 'New Hope Church' fought May 25-26, 1864. Sherman ordered Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker to attack with his division the Confederate Army of Tennessee under Gen Joseph E. Johnston. There were 1600 Union casualties and an unknown number of Confederate. Do you suppose Cassville's 364 were the entire Confederate loss? Capt. Winn may have been left behind to die in Cassville (the military term is 'bivouacked') or his family may have ordered the stone later and the date got confused.

"You can get a brief description of the daily action by going to www.americancivilwar.com/statepic and choosing 'Georgia' from the list at the bottom of the home page."

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