The Afterlives of the Dead

Many of the dead in both armies are buried in shallow graves on or near the field of battle. Some are retrieved by family or friends and carried home for burial in “body baskets,” preserved in a mixture of salt, alum, and saltpeter. Embalming is rare among fallen Confederates. As death becomes wholesale, elaborate pre-war customs for mourning and grief give way to practical sharing of mourning crepe among widows, the shortening of mourning periods, and memorial rituals that must substitute for the actual burial of a body that may never be recovered. Sentimental songs like the “The Vacant Chair” honor the courage of fallen husbands and sons, and survivors cherish the stories and letters of the lost ones.