A friend of mine recently gave me a gift that links me to this picture. It is a handwritten letter by General John Bell Hood in response to a war researcher's inquiry as to how many troops General Hood had in place at Gaines Mill. The general makes an estimation, but provides the name of someone else who could give a more accurate number.

I have seen this picture in the past, but it took on new meaning to me when I realized it is from the battle that General Hood speaks of in the letter I have.

In Brent Nosworthy's "The Bloody Crucible of Courage" there's a quote from a Rebel soldier who had a former dentist in his regiment. The dentist would find corpses like these (often buried in shallow graves that later washed open) and would extract teeth from the skulls in order to get their gold fillings. Grizzly indeed.

[Or, if we're not talking about bear attacks, grisly. - Dave]

There are many poignant images like this from WWI as well. They're all just as disturbing.

At Cold Harbor the Confederates were well dug in. Those were men who knew how to take a position where you could do the most killing from. The whole army was laid up there, waiting and hoping and praying that something would come at them. And Grant threw three corps at them, and in seven minutes they shot about seven thousand men. It was a bloody mess. It's the only thing Grant ever admitted that he'd done wrong. He said after the war, "If I had it to do over again, I don't believe I'd make that charge at Cold Harbor."

-- Shelby Foote

How sad but fascinating. The great coat retains the shape of the body that was in there; the fingers or possibly gloves of the body in front--at least they had others with them and were not alone.

Cute, Dave.

That's about all you can say about it, really. That and I wonder if the guy in the foreground was missing that front tooth before all his skin disappeared.

[Maybe the bear got it. - Dave]