On July 5, 1863, in the American Civil War, the bodies of slain Confederates were collected for burial at the edge of Rose Woods, located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

　　On July 5, 1863, during the American Civil War, slain Confederate corpses were collected for burial at the edge of Rose Woods, located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. These Confederate corpses were presumed to be those of Georgia or South Carolina regimental soldiers who fought in and around Rose Woods on July 2, 1863. They were part of the cost of the horrific engagement at Chancellorsville. The Confederacy's greatest loss was Lieutenant General Stonewall Jackson. Hundreds of bodies of dead soldiers from both armies were burned in the night in a burning thicket in the wilderness.

　This is one of a series of photographs taken by war photographers Timothy O'Sullivan and Alexander Gardner near the edge of Rose Woods on July 5 or July 6, 1863. The bodies of the soldiers closest to Boulder lay in shallow graves. The photographers' darkroom wagon can be seen in the background. The photo of the Confederate dead at Rose Woods in Gettysburg shows a row of several men lying face down waiting to be buried, with about three more lying face down.

　The body groups were accumulated for burial before the Confederates retreated. Decomposing and bloated corpses were collected. Often a curved bayonet was used as a hook at the end of the rope that dragged the decomposing and bloated bodies to the final resting place in the cemetery. During the dragging, the pants of the corpses came down. Just before the Confederate soldiers were about to bury the bodies, the burial was left incomplete and a sudden order was given to retreat.

　The Battle of Gettysburg, which broke out between July 1 and July 3, 1863, was the largest land battle fought in North America. At Gettysburg, the Army of Northern Virginia, led by Confederate General Robert Lee, had about 75,000 men. The Union Army of the Potomac, led by General George C. Meade, had an estimated 93,000 men. The Battle of Gettysburg resulted in the loss of approximately 50,000 Union and Confederate soldiers killed, wounded, or missing.