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Position:Home>History> Battlefields and bodies?Question: Battlefields and bodies!? Considering the number of battles fought, say, on English soil, what happened to all the bodies!? Where were they buried!? Where are the bodies of the Wars of the Roses, of the English Civil War!? And where are the bodies of Waterloo!?
Thanks!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Generally speaking, most of the dead are buried at, or close to, the place where they fell in battle for obvious reasons- transporting dead bodies is a waste of time and effort, and often as not, by the time they arrived some other place, they would be in no fit state to be handled! So the general soldiery who died, were often as not, buried in a pit dug specifically for the purpose, close by!. Sometimes though, an individual body was transported long distances, eg!. Nelson- whose body was brought back to England, in a barrel, pickled in alcohol! But this was very much an exceptional occurrence!. When the dead of a given battlefield are re-discovered, we often learn a lot about how individuals died!. For example, at Stamford Bridge, outside York, where the English under Harold Godwinsson fought the Norwegians under Harald Hardraada in September,1066, many of the skeletons found show evidence of the sort of wounds inflicted by weapons of the day, axes and swords!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Viking battles (pre-1000 AD) usually ended with bonfires of the dead!. Rich Saxon, Vikings and Norse warriors were buried in barrows or mounds, which later became known as "fairy mounds" and avoided due to folk superstitions!. In Roman battles in England pre 400 AD the dead were left where they lay as a warning to other rebellious Britons OR decapitated, their heads stuck on posts at crossroads or military outposts!. During the middle ages, mass graves were more the rule, eg, the 1798 rebellion in Ireland, the rebels often carried barley oats in their pockets as provisions!. After the rebellion, the barley in their pockets grew and so created the "croppy-holes", mass unmarked graves marked by barley growing out of them!. A song was written called "The wind that shakes the barley"!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Usually the bodies are gathered up, nobleman's bodies that could be identified were often claimed by their families to be buried in family tombs!. However, for the vast majority of "ordinary" soldiers were gathered up and buried in mass graves!. In Towton, there was a mass grave where there was evidence of prisoners being cold bloodily murdered!. A community wouldn't want rotting dead in their fields, as this would be a source of disease!. So it was in a communities interest to bury the dead rapidly!. In some cases in the first world war, there are hastily dug battlefield graves where soldiers lie alongside each other with their arms interlinked (literally brothers in arms)Www@QuestionHome@Com Lots of mass graves basically, and pyres!. I know of one mass grave from the English civil war that was only found because a homeowner wanted to extend his house and unearthed it whilst digging the foundation trenches!. Another way was burning the bodies; cant have hundreds/thousands of corpses creating disease!.Www@QuestionHome@Com The thing about winning a battle is you have to have somebody clean up the mess !. Some times it was captured soldiers or people from the local town or your own soldiers ,but somebody had to do it !. In olden times an army often had an entourage !. Wives and children of soldiers that tagged along with the army !. After a battle if your loved one didn't turn up you would have to go looking for him !. If he was among the dead it would be up to you to bury him and leave a marker with his name on it !. That would be a tough job for an army wife to have to do but it was part of the times !.Www@QuestionHome@Com Most battles fought on British soil, each army had camp followers who were mainly related to the soldiers, so in most cases the bodies were taken home for internment the rest were inter ed in nearby churches just look they re there! Kenny historian!.Www@QuestionHome@Com The bodies may have been burried localy by civilians!.!.!. or where ever they fell!. That's what happened in Gettysburg during the American Civil War!.Www@QuestionHome@Com The bodies of Waterloo are in Belgium where the battle was fought!. EDIT - no you didn't!.Www@QuestionHome@Com good question, thats really sad to think boutWww@QuestionHome@Com Towton was covered in Time Team and yes the Wicki quote is correct!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |