Slaughter Mountain - Close by the Battlefield, about six miles from Culpepper. March to .........
March three o'clock in the morning. We pass the battlefield which extends about two miles. The entire place is covered with pieces of weapons and clothing. The secessionists have the practice of stealing the clothing and preferably the shoes of our dead and it appears they change right there on the spot. Consequently there is a large pile of old clothing belonging to the Rebels. Likewise whole heaps of killed horses which, through the rain we have had the two preceding days and the terrific heat that followed, have immediately turned into putrefaction. A true stench of pestilence is hanging over the entire area. We likewise find in a horrible state of decomposition in many places directly by the road, carried together, whole piles of Rebel corpses. One with a torn off skull. They are swollen to the point of bursting, some perhaps from through the influence of the thunderstorm totally black in their faces so that in the beginning we believed them to be negroes, however their hands were white. Others were pale of color although in the same place. In another spot we found about three hundred corpses. By some we found notes with this inscription: "Please bury this dead near the church by Cedar Mountain."
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