Wait for cold weather, please
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch July 31, 1862:
Disinterment of dead bodies.
We daily observe at the railway stations boxes containing the bodies of deceased soldiers, which have been disinterred by their friends, under the belief that they can be sent off without delay, either by mail train or express. This, however, is an error. Freight trains only carry them, and the detention frequently causes the bodies to become offensive, when their immediate burial by the way side is a matter of necessity. It would be better to postpone disinterment until cold weather, when it can be accomplished with less trouble and more certainty of getting the remains of the departed to their destination. Metallic coffins are difficult to obtain, and wooden ones can only be procured by the payment of a large sum. In these the dead bodies are packed with sawdust, and in warm weather their transportation to a distant point is uncertain, if not absolutely impossible.
Apparently some people were able to get corpses home, even during the busy and hot summer.
From the same issue of the Dispatch:
A day of Gloom.
–The bodies of J. Lawrence Meem, Adjutant of General Garland’s Brigade, of privates Samuel B. Tyree, E. H. Elliot, Charles Terry, J. A. Reid, and A. W. Cross, all slain in the battle of Seven Pines, were brought to this city last night. The remains of the first named four will be interred in the Presbyterian cemetery. The bodies of Messrs. Cross and Reid will be interred as spring Hill cemetery to-morrow afternoon.–Lynchburg Virginian.
Fair Oaks (Seven Pines)
