1784.a.13, 2(94)

Genre: War Photography

Showing a black soldier posed beside a barrow, on which are piled the skulls, rotting clothes and other remains of Union soldiers who had died at Cold Harbour in 1862. In the background, out of focus, a party of soldiers digs up the remains of the fallen: 'This sad scene represents the soldiers in the act of collecting the remains of their comrades, killed at the battles of Gaines' Mill and Cold Harbor. It speaks ill of the residents of that part of Virginia, that they allowed even the remains of those they considered enemies, to decay unnoticed where they fell. The soldiers, to whom commonly falls the task of burying the dead, may possibly have been called away before the task was completed. At such times the native dwellers of the neighbourhood would usually come forward and provide sepulture for such as had been left uncovered. Cold Harbor, however, was not the only place where Union men were left unburied ... '