How the Civil War impacted the death profession

The Spark

According to the Adams County Historical Society, the Civil War greatly impacted American funeral practices. The ACHS is hosting Mortuary practices: How the death profession was changed by the Civil War October 30th at 7 p.m.

Maria Lynn, Archives Assistant says Duane Hills and Neva FinGado will be discussing the history of embalming practices in the United States and how the Civil War played a vital role in moving the death care profession and the preparation of the deceased into a new direction.

“They talk about not only the Civil War, but the one of the gentlemen that wrote books. He actually worked for many years for Joseph Gobblers Sons, which was in Washington, DC, Funeral Home. It's still there today, and they still have very high-profile funerals. And I do believe that President Lincoln, after he was killed, he did he was taken eventually to the Sons Funeral Home, “said Lynn.

During the Civil War, there were no dog tags to identify soldiers or federal hospitals. Andrew Dalton, Executive Director of the Adams County Historical Society and Gettysburg Beyond the Battle Museum adds there was a decline to preserve the bodies for long distance transportation and people were returning to practice buying the deceased near their home quickly.

“After the Battle of Gettysburg, the town was so overwhelmed by the dead that I'm sure it was not available for every transportation. You know? And you know, if you think about it, there are like seven, 6 or 7000 bodies left behind at Gettysburg, meant almost all of them buried in temporary graves. But it was just an overwhelming undertaking for the town. And to deal with this, you know, there were some agencies that came in to help the Sanitary Commission, you know, the Sisters of Charity, a group of nuns from Emmitsburg. But for the most part, the task of dealing with this was left to the townspeople. So that's just a really important dimension here. But yeah, no dog tags, no ability to identify graves except for what was left in people's pockets. You know, if he died at a hospital, it was more likely that you would have given your name and information to someone who could then, you know, associate that with the body. But in many, many cases, you know, they're digging through people's bags and belongings and having sex and trying to find, you know, some sort of identifying mark, “said Dalton.

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