MANASSAS NATIONAL BATTLEFIELD PARK, VA (RNN) - Scientists in Virginia have unearthed the amputated limbs of wounded Union soldiers in a pit of human bones.
The discovery at Manassas National Battlefield Park in Manassas, VA, is believed to be the first known “limb pit” from a Civil War battlefield, according to NPR.
The bones were first excavated in 2014 by utility workers.
The National Park Service runs the site and to date experts have found 11 limbs - 10 leg bones and one arm. Some of the many bones found include sawed-off femurs and limbs with bullet holes.
Scientists also found complete remains of two soldiers who were likely killed during battle. The remains will be moved to Arlington National Cemetery later this year, according to NPR.
Brandon Bies, an archaeologist and Civil War expert described what likely happened to the soldiers during the Battle of Second Manassas (Second Battle of Bull Run) in 1862 where Union forces were defeated by the Confederate soldiers.
"As (Union soldiers) start to get closer, within 300, 400 yards, they start to receive rifle fire and musket fire," Bies told NPR. "Men are dropping left and right."
"Over 100,000 soldiers had trampled, shot, exploded, eaten, burned everything," Bies said. "And so, the water was tainted, every single house (and) barn was occupied by wounded soldiers, and these surgeons had very little to work with."
The team believed that surgeons at a field hospital buried the limbs after performing amputations.
It was a rudimentary operation.
Bies said surgeons had little to work with except saws and some chloroform to make their patients unconscious. Antibiotics were not known during the period.
Researchers are still working to possibly identify the bones from the patients. Doug Owsley, a chief physical anthologist at the Smithsonian said surgeons kept records of patients’ names along with details of their wounds.
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