Undertakers in the 19th Century

[Rsmyth]

Good questions Betty. I can only say that a cottage industry developed involving embalming. Embalmers travelled to the battle fields and then had the deceased shipped home. Prior to that the dead were buried where they fell. I had heard of some well off departed whose coffin was placed in a copper container that was filled with ice for the shipment. What happened when the body arrived home I do not know. The body of JWB was shipped from one undertaker to another but not all the soldiers were as well off as the Booths.