A Civil War Surgeon’s Pit at Manassas National Battlefield Park, Virginia

Abstract

Human bone fragments were discovered during archaeological monitoring of earth moving on Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia. Later mitigation recovered bones in situ—two skeletons and seven amputated limbs. Interdisciplinary research affords an unusually detailed level of interpretation, including identification of the remains as Union soldiers wounded during the Battle of Second Manassas (28–30 August 1862). The reconstructed narrative includes military and personal markers of identity, as well as causes of death and injury, and establishes a window from 1 to 6 September 1862 when the pit was dug. Records of Union surgeons make future personal identification of the amputated limbs possible and confirm the pit’s location as a key treatment center after Second Manassas, a battle that marked an inflection point for combat military medicine by highlighting the urgent need for improved systematic recovery and treatment of the wounded.