Although
the Federal dead were removed from the battlefield in 1866 and reinterred in
the Shiloh National Cemetery, the Confederate dead were left on the battlefield.
As Confederates were technically not United States personnel, they have traditionally
been buried elsewhere. As a result, the Confederates who died at Shiloh remain
on the field in several large mass graves and many smaller individual plots.
As many as eleven or twelve mass graves exist, but the park commission that
created the park could only locate five. Those five are now marked at Shiloh
National Military Park. Of course, all the Confederates buried in the trenches
are unknown, having been buried as a mass by the enemy who did not know their
identity. Only three Confederates now lie in the Shiloh National Cemetery: F.A.
Rasch of the Orleans Guard (who is in
an unknown grave), Phillip
Prosser of the 13th Louisiana, and R.E.
Cook of the 18th Alabama. Work is continually ongoing
to compile an accurate list of Confederate casualties.
