GDG- looting of the dead

[Charles T. Joyce]

I'll try to find a copy of the image and post it...it's one of my
favorites.

-----Original Message-----
From: gettysburg-bounces at arthes.com
[mailto:gettysburg-bounces at arthes.com] On Behalf Of CWMHTours at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 3:13 PM
To: gettysburg at arthes.com
Subject: Re: GDG- looting of the dead

Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
It would be weird if they knew the guy and spent the night  talking to
his 
body and drinking toasts over him.  Actually it would be  weird if they 
didn't?
 
Your  Most Obedient Servant,
Peter  

 
In a message dated 1/11/2012 3:10:54 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
CTJoyce at spearwilderman.com writes:

Esteemed  GDG Member Contributes:
For what its worth, just about every image I've  every seen of Civil War
dead seems to show so evidence of being  "rifled."  I think, especially
as the war dragged on, the living  tended to view the dead more and more
abstractly.

I am reminded of  one less commonly displayed Gettysburg death image
from
the bottom of the  triangular field (the Timbers Farm can be seen
faintly
in the background -  it is in Early Photography at Gettysburg but not A
Journey in Time).   There is a dead Confederate laying face down next to
almost a cave-like  structure of boulders, and beside that, neatly laid
out, is wood for a  fire. So, it appears that on the evening of July 2
(or 3rd) some  Confederates had a camp fire within a few feet of where
one of there own  had fallen.
That has always somewhat amazed me.

-----Original  Message-----
From:  gettysburg-bounces at arthes.com
[mailto:gettysburg-bounces at arthes.com] On  Behalf Of CWMHTours at aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2012 3:01  PM
To: gettysburg at arthes.com
Subject: GDG- looting of the  dead

Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
After all this kerfluffle over  the Harvest of Death I am  wondering?:

How common was looting of  dead bodies during/after a battle  was it?
It
is 
common to  see pix of corpses with pockets inside out,  etc?

Usually I know  everything but now I am perplexed.

I would think that if it was your  friend you would go through  his
pockets 
for things to send back  to his family and stuff like poker cards and
dice 
to not send  them.

Then what do you do with his money?  Send it to his   family?  Did they 
always send it to the family?

His  haversack.  Food.  Necessities.  Share that  with  messmates?

What if you are out in the woods somewhere and you see  a  corpse in the

uniform of your side?  What do you do?   Look for ID- a  bible perhaps?
What 
about money, food, pocket  watches?  What do you  do?

What if you encounter, by yourself  in the woods, a freshly  killed
enemy?  
Go through his  pockets?  What do you keep?  What  do you do  with
everything?

Interesting moral issues here.  It was  Victorian  times.  Would they
have 
handled things differently  than we would  now?

My knickers are starting to get into a know  now wondering  about this.

Your  Most Obedient  Servant,
Peter
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