@John Brunner Well, since it's been 50+ years, I suppose the statute of limitations has run out, though I am reluctant to discuss it, it's the truth....... I was attending DeVry Technical Institute in Chicago right out of high school, and had a friend recently discharged from the Army, older, wife and little girl. He drove a big International Harvester Travelall. Asked me one day if I would help him load and haul an old cannon......sounded like a real challenge. 'Course, he lived in an apartment, no room, but my folks' basement had plenty.......It was done middle of the night......a memorial in a cemetery, 3 cannons there.......he had a big jack similar to this: Onto which it was easy to roll the big iron object......about 5 feet long, perhaps 800+ lbs. Into the truck it went, slid down the 4 icy steps leading into our basement, folks remained asleep. Of course I explained to them it was Allan's cannon......they never asked about it's origins. I built a stand for it; it had two round trunnions on the sides which supported it. Believe this or not, once monthly, 3 times yearly, meter-readers entered our basement to read gas and water meters, walked past a huge cannon, never said a word! Time came my folks decided "out": Allan came with a flat-bed trailer on July 4th., Independence Day, we loaded it up, and off he went, passing 2 cop cars along the way, with no reaction from them. Allan was a pretty astute cookie. 'Course, nobody knows I don't make up all these crack-pot stories....... Frank
What is seldom brought out is after the battles there were no military MASH units to care for the injured and dead. The corpses laid there until they rotted away. No burials just decay.
People don't realize that those uniform buttons that are found by collectors did not get torn off in battle. The corpses lay rotting, and when they bloated, their buttons popped off.
Louis Zamperini was an extra in this movie. He finally got to see it as a bombardier serving in the South Pacific.
The big battle scene in 'Cold Mountain' really upset me as do most battles in war. Men come home broken physically and/or mentally. Wars are fought mostly for economic and political reasons. Reasons are given that honorable men are willing to fight for but... JMHO
Whilst indeed many soldiers, as in all wars, were left without collection nor ceremony but as explained in the link provided, the dead were collected as much as possible after each battle. https://www.historynet.com/who-took-care-of-the-dead-after-civil-war-battles.htm What is most important concerning the deceased is that nearly half of those collected were not identified.