The Bone Lady: Life As a Forensic Anthropologist

26. Civil War on the Bluff

CIVIL WAR ON THE BLUFF N a Pleistocene bluff that rises high above the abandoned floodplain of the Mississippi River north of Baton Rouge lies a small cemetery with direct ties to the American Civil War. The Port Hudson Soldiers ' Cemetery lies in an area that was part of the scene of a major battle of that war. From May 23, 1863, until July 9, 1863, one of the longest continuous battles of any war involving American troops took place at Port Hudson. Unfortunately, the American troops were battling one another. For centuries, the "white bluffs" at Port Hudson have intrigued explorers , politicians, and scientists. Sieur d'Iberville, the great Canadian explorer, described their beauty and intrigue; Great Britain drew up formal plans to place a city there; Sir Charles Lyell, the famous English geologist, visited Port Hudson on his last excursion to the Americas in the 18405. 26 O 126 THE BONE LADY Confederate grave marker on bluff at Port Hudson In a region close to the bluff's edge lie several rows of small, flat, marble grave markers, approximately twenty inches long and twelve inches high. Each stone is engraved UNKNOWN CONFEDERATE SOLDIER and rests at the head of a symmetrical, shallow soil depression. In the 19605, during the centennial memorial of the Civil War, Louisiana governor Jimmy Davis commissioned the placement of these marble markers over each of the depressions at Port Hudson. It had been suggested that the depressions represented the long lost graves of Confederate soldiers who had died during the battle there in 1863. Over the years, vandalism and erosion had impacted the site.Two decades after the markers were laid, LSU anthropologists were asked to authenticate whether there actually were any burials at the site, and, if so, to determine whether they were soldiers. That field project began in 1987 under the direction of Doug Owsley and continued for six years thereafter under my direction. My co—principal investigator during all of those years was Ann Whitmer, a fine historic and prehistoric archaeologist. CIVIL WAR ON THE BLUFF 127 Historically, the siege at Port Hudson is considered by some to have been one of the major turning points of the war. When the Confederates surrendered on July 9 after the fall of Vicksburg five days before, the Union army gained control of the Mississippi River and, by extension , the Red, the Black, and the Ouachita Rivers, cutting off all major water supply routes for the Confederates to the west and north. Records suggest that approximately 1,500 Union soldiers and 200 Confederate soldiers died in battle or from associated illnesses related to the siege at Port Hudson. The casualties, though, were much greater, as more than 35,000 Union troops encircled and eventually closed in on the 6,000 or so Confederates who were surrounded on all sides. The town of Port Hudson was destroyed. What began as a bawdy, bustling port in the early iSoos never regained its prewar stature, and a cow pasture now sits where Main Street thrived. In 1867 the National Cemetery at Port Hudson was opened. That year marked the beginning of a massive effort either to relocate all known Union soldiers to such national cemeteries or to transport them home. In the past, it was thought that no Confederate soldiers were buried at the National Cemetery at Port Hudson. However, cemetery records indicate that at least a few may be. They may not be the only unofficial residents of the cemetery. Those folks hired to find the Union soldiers were paid "by the burial" .and are said to have profited from a few not-so-human skeletal remains. While it is likely that only a few Confederate soldiers may have ended up at the National Cemetery, the location of the majority of the two hundred or more who died at Port Hudson was not known. Some people believed that they were buried on the western edge of the old town cemetery, high on the bluff, where Governor Davis placed the stones in the 19605. Bioarchaeology tells a somewhat different story. Our archaeological team tested those depressions in 1987, and, yes, they were graves. However, soil stains outlining the shapes of deteriorated coffins suggested graves of adults and children. Additionally, 128 THE BONE LADY Testing of depressions associated with Confederate grave markers burial artifacts were civilian in nature: plain porcelain buttons, a broken watch, and coffin...