JCCW Barbarities – Daniel Bixby, Jr.

Report of the Conduct of the War, Volume 3, pp. 476 – 477

WASHINGTON, April 11, 1862.

DANIEL BIXBY, jr., sworn and examined.

By Mr. Covode:

Question. Where do you reside?

Answer. I reside in this city.

Question. Have you been recently on a visit to Manassas and Bull Run?

Answer. I have.

Question. Will you state to the committee, in your own way, what you saw and learned in relation to the condition of our dead there?

Answer. I went out in company with Mr. Gr. A. Smart, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who went to look for the body of his brother, who fell at Blackburn’s Ford, in the action of the 18th of July. We took with us one who was there at the time, to point out where his brother fell. We found a grave there, which was opened. The clothes there found were identified as those of the brother of Mr. Smart, and were recognized from some peculiarities in the make; they were made by the mother. Other clothes of the same make, and with the same peculiarities, were taken with us, with which to compare those we might find in the grave. They were compared, and found to correspond exactly, We found no head in the grave, and no bones of any kind; nothing but the clothes and portions of the flesh of the body. We also saw the remains of three other bodies together that had not been buried at all, as we concluded from their appearance. The clothes were there, which we examined by cutting them open, and found some remains of flesh in them, but no bones. A Mrs. Pierce Butler, who lived near there, said that she had seen the rebels boiling portions of the bodies of our dead in order to obtain their bones as relics, the rebels not waiting for them to decay, so that they could take their bones from them. She said she had seen drum sticks made of “Yankee shin-bones,” as the rebels call them.

By Mr. Odell:

Question. Are there any bones in a man’s body long enough to make drumsticks?

Answer. The lower leg bone, the shin-bone, was used for that.

By Mr. Covode:

Question. Did you see more than the one grave opened?

Answer. No, sir; that was the only grave we examined.

Question. You were satisfied from examination of the remains that the bones had all been taken away?

Answer. Yes, sir; we examined the clothes thoroughly and found but one small piece of bone, perhaps as large as your little finger; that was all.

Question. Did the body appear to have been taken up after it had been buried?

Answer. We could not tell positively about that, but we thought it probable that it had been.

Question. How deep was it buried?

Answer. Two feet, perhaps; just covered over fairly. Mrs. Butler also said she had seen a skull that one of the New Orleans artillery had, which he said he was going to send home and have mounted, and was going to drink a brandy punch out of it the day he was married. I understood Mrs. Butler to say that the rebels had a force of some 90,000 men at Manassas, Centreville, and Bull Run, until the middle of February, when they began to leave. The artillery and infantry that were stationed near where she lived she said went away on the Friday before our troops went out there. But on Friday night they sent back a regiment of cavalry to do picket duty, and on Saturday morning they went away, and on Saturday afternoon our pickets and scouts came up there.

Question. On Saturday afternoon?

Answer. I will not be certain whether it was Saturday or Sunday afternoon. They came up in the afternoon of the day the enemy left in the morning.

Question. Had you any conversation with any other parties relative to this matter?

Answer. No, sir; we saw none beside our own party, except Mr. Butler and his family.