John R Drummonds was a Lieutenant in the 16th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, Company B, Confederate States of America, and fell at the Battle of Antietam, often called the single worst battle in American history.
Needless to say, any information on John would be almost impossible to find at this late date. After the battle, burial details performed their enormous task "hastily but imperfectly." There seems to have been a vast difference in caring for the bodies of the Confederate dead, as opposed to those of the Union.
It took over a week to bury those that were found, and the graves varied from a single burial to long, shallow trenches in which hundreds of bodies would be thrown. Union soldiers were used primarily for this detail, and obviously, their first concern would be their own comrades in arms, and Johnny Reb would be pretty well ignored.
These Union troops were mostly buried in the Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg, and even this Cemetery was not dedicated until 1867, five years after the battle.
The Confederate dead were pretty well ignored and did not seem to be a matter of concern until 1869, when the Board of Trustees finally addressed the matter, it has been said that even at this late date, there were still exposed bodies of Confederate dead on the battlefield.
A goodly number of Confederate dead were finally either buried or re-interred in the Washington Confederate Cemetery in Rose Hill Cemetery, Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland. There are many others who died there, who are buried in other parts of the battlefield area, and unfortunately, there does not seem to be a complete listing available as to names and place of burial. An attempt was made many years ago by Messrs. Aaron Good and Moses Poffinberger to address this problem, but it is not considered to be 100% accurate.
There is considerable that has been written about the battle and about the burial or non burials that followed. Suffice it to say that our Ancestor Lieutenant John R Drummonds lies somewhere on this hallowed ground, and should be remembered.
Markings for the dead were almost non-existant, and resembled the markings of many of my relatives that were buried after the War "on the place" or "at home", many with a rock at the head, a simple wooden cross, a tree branch, etc.
A very few were fortunate enough to be buried in Church cemeteries, but very few. Identification of the dead was next to impossible, there were no "Dog Tags" that were used in my day, and identification was by whatever was available on the corpse, letters, photographs, perhaps a name scratched on a belt buckle. Many of the Soldiers carried a letter on their person addressed to their family, in the hope that someone would find it and notify them.
These "burials" were in haste, and for the most part shallow, and stories were told of wild hogs uprooting the bodies as a result.
Needless to say, any information on John would be almost impossible to find at this late date. After the battle, burial details performed their enormous task "hastily but imperfectly." There seems to have been a vast difference in caring for the bodies of the Confederate dead, as opposed to those of the Union.
It took over a week to bury those that were found, and the graves varied from a single burial to long, shallow trenches in which hundreds of bodies would be thrown. Union soldiers were used primarily for this detail, and obviously, their first concern would be their own comrades in arms, and Johnny Reb would be pretty well ignored.
These Union troops were mostly buried in the Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg, and even this Cemetery was not dedicated until 1867, five years after the battle.
The Confederate dead were pretty well ignored and did not seem to be a matter of concern until 1869, when the Board of Trustees finally addressed the matter, it has been said that even at this late date, there were still exposed bodies of Confederate dead on the battlefield.
A goodly number of Confederate dead were finally either buried or re-interred in the Washington Confederate Cemetery in Rose Hill Cemetery, Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland. There are many others who died there, who are buried in other parts of the battlefield area, and unfortunately, there does not seem to be a complete listing available as to names and place of burial. An attempt was made many years ago by Messrs. Aaron Good and Moses Poffinberger to address this problem, but it is not considered to be 100% accurate.
There is considerable that has been written about the battle and about the burial or non burials that followed. Suffice it to say that our Ancestor Lieutenant John R Drummonds lies somewhere on this hallowed ground, and should be remembered.
Markings for the dead were almost non-existant, and resembled the markings of many of my relatives that were buried after the War "on the place" or "at home", many with a rock at the head, a simple wooden cross, a tree branch, etc.
A very few were fortunate enough to be buried in Church cemeteries, but very few. Identification of the dead was next to impossible, there were no "Dog Tags" that were used in my day, and identification was by whatever was available on the corpse, letters, photographs, perhaps a name scratched on a belt buckle. Many of the Soldiers carried a letter on their person addressed to their family, in the hope that someone would find it and notify them.
These "burials" were in haste, and for the most part shallow, and stories were told of wild hogs uprooting the bodies as a result.
John R Drummonds was a Lieutenant in the 16th Mississippi Infantry Regiment, Company B, Confederate States of America, and fell at the Battle of Antietam, often called the single worst battle in American history.
Needless to say, any information on John would be almost impossible to find at this late date. After the battle, burial details performed their enormous task "hastily but imperfectly." There seems to have been a vast difference in caring for the bodies of the Confederate dead, as opposed to those of the Union.
It took over a week to bury those that were found, and the graves varied from a single burial to long, shallow trenches in which hundreds of bodies would be thrown. Union soldiers were used primarily for this detail, and obviously, their first concern would be their own comrades in arms, and Johnny Reb would be pretty well ignored.
These Union troops were mostly buried in the Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg, and even this Cemetery was not dedicated until 1867, five years after the battle.
The Confederate dead were pretty well ignored and did not seem to be a matter of concern until 1869, when the Board of Trustees finally addressed the matter, it has been said that even at this late date, there were still exposed bodies of Confederate dead on the battlefield.
A goodly number of Confederate dead were finally either buried or re-interred in the Washington Confederate Cemetery in Rose Hill Cemetery, Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland. There are many others who died there, who are buried in other parts of the battlefield area, and unfortunately, there does not seem to be a complete listing available as to names and place of burial. An attempt was made many years ago by Messrs. Aaron Good and Moses Poffinberger to address this problem, but it is not considered to be 100% accurate.
There is considerable that has been written about the battle and about the burial or non burials that followed. Suffice it to say that our Ancestor Lieutenant John R Drummonds lies somewhere on this hallowed ground, and should be remembered.
Markings for the dead were almost non-existant, and resembled the markings of many of my relatives that were buried after the War "on the place" or "at home", many with a rock at the head, a simple wooden cross, a tree branch, etc.
A very few were fortunate enough to be buried in Church cemeteries, but very few. Identification of the dead was next to impossible, there were no "Dog Tags" that were used in my day, and identification was by whatever was available on the corpse, letters, photographs, perhaps a name scratched on a belt buckle. Many of the Soldiers carried a letter on their person addressed to their family, in the hope that someone would find it and notify them.
These "burials" were in haste, and for the most part shallow, and stories were told of wild hogs uprooting the bodies as a result.
Needless to say, any information on John would be almost impossible to find at this late date. After the battle, burial details performed their enormous task "hastily but imperfectly." There seems to have been a vast difference in caring for the bodies of the Confederate dead, as opposed to those of the Union.
It took over a week to bury those that were found, and the graves varied from a single burial to long, shallow trenches in which hundreds of bodies would be thrown. Union soldiers were used primarily for this detail, and obviously, their first concern would be their own comrades in arms, and Johnny Reb would be pretty well ignored.
These Union troops were mostly buried in the Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg, and even this Cemetery was not dedicated until 1867, five years after the battle.
The Confederate dead were pretty well ignored and did not seem to be a matter of concern until 1869, when the Board of Trustees finally addressed the matter, it has been said that even at this late date, there were still exposed bodies of Confederate dead on the battlefield.
A goodly number of Confederate dead were finally either buried or re-interred in the Washington Confederate Cemetery in Rose Hill Cemetery, Hagerstown, Washington County, Maryland. There are many others who died there, who are buried in other parts of the battlefield area, and unfortunately, there does not seem to be a complete listing available as to names and place of burial. An attempt was made many years ago by Messrs. Aaron Good and Moses Poffinberger to address this problem, but it is not considered to be 100% accurate.
There is considerable that has been written about the battle and about the burial or non burials that followed. Suffice it to say that our Ancestor Lieutenant John R Drummonds lies somewhere on this hallowed ground, and should be remembered.
Markings for the dead were almost non-existant, and resembled the markings of many of my relatives that were buried after the War "on the place" or "at home", many with a rock at the head, a simple wooden cross, a tree branch, etc.
A very few were fortunate enough to be buried in Church cemeteries, but very few. Identification of the dead was next to impossible, there were no "Dog Tags" that were used in my day, and identification was by whatever was available on the corpse, letters, photographs, perhaps a name scratched on a belt buckle. Many of the Soldiers carried a letter on their person addressed to their family, in the hope that someone would find it and notify them.
These "burials" were in haste, and for the most part shallow, and stories were told of wild hogs uprooting the bodies as a result.
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