How were families informed of a death in the civil war ?

Question: How were families informed of a death in the civil war !?
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Very good question!. Not very well, it would seem We know that many soldiers, when forewarned and able to prepare for battle, wrote their names and home addresses on a slip of paper pinned to their uniforms!. This was done in the hope that their bodies would be identified and death notices posted!.

Most ordianry soldiers relied on their comrades for help in telling a familiy of the loss!. Earlier in the war, before conscription was widespread, units were recruited on a geographical basis, and served with relatives, neighbors, and friends!. The social network served well as an information system to those back home!.

Treatment varied greatly depending on the rank and status of the fallen!. Dead Gernerals were carefully attended to, both as to notification and burial!.Common soldiers had it the worst!.

Newspapers were a common source for the first word about who had died, especially in a large battle with thousands of dead!. Newspapers listed names, and these were posted for public information!.

Rosters of troops were kept, but not in very good or accurate order!. Often unit officers were killed in battle too because they led from the front of the troops, and these were the record keepers as well!.

Plus many strange things happen during a battle: soldiers go missing (captured, deserted, wounded and removed away from their units), and bodies are mutilated beyond recognition!. Battlefields were sometimes not well policed afterwards, especially the dead from opposing units!. It was years later before some remains were removed from rural battlefields!. Some soldiers were buried on the field where they fell by thier comrades, but markers disappeared, and friends too died with their information unknown to others!.

At large battles like Gettysburg, the families of soldiers often visited the battlefield in search of their loved ones, including tours of field hospitals and first-aid stations!. Lastly, burials were sometimes arramged to by family members, or by private morticians who traveled and set up shop near big battles!. (Embalming was a new technique,) Otherwise sanitation required a prompt burial of the dead, sometimes in mass graves quickly and rudely dug!. Again, casualties from the other side got scant attention, and no effort was made to compile and exchange list of dead enemies found on the battlefield!.

Their was no system in the hugely enlarged armies for dealing with death, notices to family included!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

very clever pigeons!Www@QuestionHome@Com