Robert Selig on Of Skull, Severed Heads and Skeletons: Battlefield Clean-up during the American War of Independence

Battlefield clean-up is a topic rarely covered by modern historians yet following almost any military engagement, there are corpses to dispose of. Who does that? Can we tell who buried whom? When? How many hours, days, months later? Where? Individually or in mass graves? In natural crevices? Lakes? Naked or dressed? Officers and other ranks together or separate? How long do they remain in the ground? Are they ever found? Who would dig them up and why? Can we identify them? What happens with the skeletons? This talk will address these and related questions.