"Gettysburg Part of America's Soul"

[Hess1865]

Getting back to the Gettysburg topic, I'd like to tell you of a book I have, which is about Gettysburg after the battle ended. It's called, A Strange And Blighted Land: Gettysburg-The Aftermath Of A Battle, by Gregory A Coco. The books goes into depth about the wrecked farms. the piles of dead bodies, the horse carcasses and just about every other battle aftermath you could think of. Hence the books title. It can be very hard to read at times due to its content, but it will explain how they reinterred the bodies for the National Cemetary and also how the town turned into a tourist stop within days of the end of the battle. The big problem was people [if you want to call them that! ] who scavenged the fields, looting bodies looking for money and relics, totally tasteless things. The army quartermaster in charge got wise quick and would force anyone caught doing this to be put on burial details. And that was not a pleasant task.
An offbeat book worth reading IMO.