DOG TAGS
December 1906, the Army put out a general order requiring aluminum disc-shaped ID tags to be worn by soldiers. During the American Civil War, identification of deceased, unconscious or insensible soldiers was a game of catch-as-catch-can.
Some soldiers pinned paper notes with their name and home address to the backs of their coats (as at the Battle of Cold Harbor). Other soldiers stenciled identification on their knapsacks or scratched it in the soft lead backing of their army belt buckles. Others carved their surname or unit identification into their wooden rifle butt.
Ad hoc identification on articles of clothing or fighting accessories also produced unintended consequences. Battlefield opportunism allowed surviving soldiers to choose among the effects of the deceased. If the recipient of another's identified item himself later became a casualty then his corpse's possession of the item could produce a travesty of identification.
HEADSTONE RECORDS ARE THE 'RULE OF LAW' ON FINDAGRAVE
In an honest attempt to memorialize a Civil War soldier you can photograph a headstone, transcribe its content, and create a new record on Findagrave. By doing so, the aspirant is placing a lot of confidence in the good faith of surgeons and coroners at Camp Curtin, undertakers who transported the decedents to the Harrisburg Cemetery, gravediggers who open and closed the graves, and stonecutters who sweated over creating the headstones.
CONTRIBUTORS WITH THE 'SUPERPOWER' TO ERASE THE CONTENT OF HEADSTONES
There's an alternative possibility that judgmental contributors want you to take seriously. All of those actors conspired to prank future internet users by creating false impressions of graves.
Find a Grave contributor, Dennis Brandt doesn't believe that any soldier is buried in this grave, or a soldier with a different identity and/or regimental servIce is buried here. Anything imaginable is more truthful than the content of the headstone for this contributor. Findagrave treats headstone records as truth; otherwise, there's no purpose at all for this grave or memorial or website.
Mr Brandt disagrees with inclusion of the regimental inscription on this headstone in this electronic record.
DOG TAGS
December 1906, the Army put out a general order requiring aluminum disc-shaped ID tags to be worn by soldiers. During the American Civil War, identification of deceased, unconscious or insensible soldiers was a game of catch-as-catch-can.
Some soldiers pinned paper notes with their name and home address to the backs of their coats (as at the Battle of Cold Harbor). Other soldiers stenciled identification on their knapsacks or scratched it in the soft lead backing of their army belt buckles. Others carved their surname or unit identification into their wooden rifle butt.
Ad hoc identification on articles of clothing or fighting accessories also produced unintended consequences. Battlefield opportunism allowed surviving soldiers to choose among the effects of the deceased. If the recipient of another's identified item himself later became a casualty then his corpse's possession of the item could produce a travesty of identification.
HEADSTONE RECORDS ARE THE 'RULE OF LAW' ON FINDAGRAVE
In an honest attempt to memorialize a Civil War soldier you can photograph a headstone, transcribe its content, and create a new record on Findagrave. By doing so, the aspirant is placing a lot of confidence in the good faith of surgeons and coroners at Camp Curtin, undertakers who transported the decedents to the Harrisburg Cemetery, gravediggers who open and closed the graves, and stonecutters who sweated over creating the headstones.
CONTRIBUTORS WITH THE 'SUPERPOWER' TO ERASE THE CONTENT OF HEADSTONES
There's an alternative possibility that judgmental contributors want you to take seriously. All of those actors conspired to prank future internet users by creating false impressions of graves.
Find a Grave contributor, Dennis Brandt doesn't believe that any soldier is buried in this grave, or a soldier with a different identity and/or regimental servIce is buried here. Anything imaginable is more truthful than the content of the headstone for this contributor. Findagrave treats headstone records as truth; otherwise, there's no purpose at all for this grave or memorial or website.
Mr Brandt disagrees with inclusion of the regimental inscription on this headstone in this electronic record.
Gravesite Details
Co. B, 101st Pa Vol. (see Bio)
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