Manuscript Database
Creator/Title
United States Army Quartermaster's Department. Field note books, 1867, undated. 2 vols.
Call No.
Mss. BG U58d / 1-2
Content
These two volumes contain the field notes of military personnel assigned to locate and identify Union soldiers' graves within the confines of the Military Department of the Tennessee, which embraced the states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. The notebooks reflect the nationwide Reburial Project (1866-1870) which was initiated by a joint resolution of Congress in 1866. Coordinated by departmental quartermaster Major Edmund B. Whitman in Louisville, the regional project involved Capt. Lawrence B. Fish whose field notes contain information on burial sites in several Kentucky locations between Bardstown and Smithland. Entries recorded on pp. 7-10 identify the burial sites of Union soldiers and civilians killed by Capt. Henry C. Magruder's guerrillas during the conflict. In addition to various Union campsites, he mentions the graves of soldiers killed in various small actions and skirmishes. Volume 2, which was maintained by F. N. Field contains detailed information on the units based in Columbus (pp. 36-45) and Hickman (pp. 48-50) as well as the names of local physicians who staffed the military hospitals in both towns.