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to Janine Bestine and Peggy Chan for running my computers; and to Lars Madsen for taking on so much so well at the last minute. Kennie Lyman did the near impossible in making sure the manuscript was ready to go to press on time. I have been privileged to enjoy the generosity first of the University of Pennsylvania and then of Harvard University in support of my work as a historian, and I have been inspired for the past six years by the intellectual riches of the Radcliffe Institute. I am the grateful beneficiary of the treasures of the many manuscript repositories cited in the notes, and I thank the libraries and museums that have permitted me to use quotations and illustrations. Parts of this book appeared in slightly different form in the Journal of Southern History, the Journal of Military History, and Southern Cultures. In quoting primary materials, I have retained original, often rather creative, spellings without inserting the intrusive sic.

Charles Rosenberg and Jessica Rosenberg are great editors and critics. But they know that is the least of it. Thanks to them for believing in this project for so long and for living with my fascination with death.

Cambridge, January 2007

Illustration Credits

Front Matter “The True Defenders of the Constitution.” Harper’s Weekly, November 11, 1865. The Library Company of Philadelphia.

Front Matter “Confederate Dead at Antietam, September 1862.” Photograph by Alexander Gardner. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Civil War Photographs, LC-DIG-cwpb-01090.

Chapter 1 Milton Wallen, Company C, First Kentucky Cavalry, in a prison hospital. “Dying of Gangrene.” Watercolor by Edward Stauch. Courtesy of the National Museum of Health and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C., CWMI 98C.

Chapter 1 Amos Humiston dies holding an ambrotype of his three children. “An Incident at Gettysburg.” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, January 2, 1864. Widener Library, Harvard College Library, XPS 527 PF.

Chapter 1 “The Letter Home.” Charcoal and graphite drawing by Eastman Johnson, 1867. Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Julia B. Bigelow Fund.

Chapter 1 “The Execution of the Deserter William Johnson.” Harper’s Weekly, December 28, 1861. The Library Company of Philadelphia.

Chapter 2 “The Sixth Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteers Firing into the People, Baltimore, April, 1861.” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, April 30, 1861. Widener Library, Harvard College Library, XPS 527 PF.

Chapter 2 “The Army of the Potomac—A Sharp-Shooter on Picket Duty.” Engraving from an oil painting by Winslow Homer. Harper’s Weekly, November 15, 1862. The Library Company of Philadelphia.

Chapter 2 “The War in Tennessee—Rebel Massacre of the Union Troops After the Surrender at Fort Pillow, April 12.” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, May 7, 1864. Widener Library, Harvard College Library, XPS 527 PF.

Chapter 2 Image of an “Unidentified Sergeant, U.S. Colored Troops,” in the Picture File Collection (ID Number M1371) located in the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library, Duke University.

Chapter 2 “Funeral of the Late Captain Cailloux.” Harper’s Weekly, August 29, 1863. Widener Library, Harvard College Library, P 207.6 F.

Chapter 3 “Soldiers’ Graves near General Hospital, City Point, Virginia.” Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Civil War Photographs, LC-DIG-cwpb-01872.

Chapter 3 “A Burial Party After the Battle of Antietam.” Photograph by Alexander Gardner. Library of Congress. Prints & Photographs Division, Civil War Photographs, LC-DIG-cwpb-01098.

Chapter 3 “Antietam. Bodies of Confederate Dead Gathered for Burial.” Photograph by Alexander Gardner. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Civil War Photographs, LC-DIG-cwpb-01094.

Chapter 3 “Burying the Dead Under a Flag of Truce, Petersburg, 1864.” Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, September 3, 1864. Widener Library, Harvard College Library, XPS 527 PF.

Chapter 3 “Dead Confederate Soldiers Collected for Burial. Spotsylvania, May 1864.” Library