Disinterred

Chapter Ten- Stunning Evidence

          We need to start looking for more maps, literature, antiques, deeds, financial records and anything we can find on the Gentry plantation.  We need to look up every single soul who lived in this area between 1836 and 1865.  

     Then look at each individual family separately including their financial records, who they married, and more importantly the names, as well as backgrounds of every male who went to fight with the Army of Northern Virginia.  

     Especially those who attended the University of Mississippi.  The University Grey's as they were called were  particularly oatsey.  They were involved in some of the bloodiest battles of the civil war.  They took heavy casualties when the south invaded the north. 

     If the Gentry brothers had been eating the crops since they were children that might have something to do with how they survived.  If that is the case and there is something going on with the crops then most of the 11th Mississippi infantry regiment would have been eating them as well.  Lets see what we find in the town records about the boys who went off to fight.  

     We should go to the University Library and look up the different graduates and form there we can find which town each soldier who joined from the University came from.  The property deeds in town will lead us to the birth records of  the soldiers who didn't go to the University. 

   When we get there you look up the graduates and I will look for more information on the Gentry Plantation.  There is bound to be more information about the dealings with the plantation that would perhaps explain the tunnel system you found there.  If we are going to go back down there I don't want to be walking in blind like I did last time, dad.

       As the library door to the old University swings open the muffled sound of a radio along with an odd, but familiar odor come from behindthe counter. Hello, excuse me says, "Dan," to the young librarian with head phones on.  How are you doing today,  I  coudn't help but notice the unusually red glazed eyes and the bathroom smells pretty nice.  

     You have a little pot on the potty before you came back to work today.  Uh.....no sir.  Don't worry about it I'm murder police so I don't really care how much pot you smoke as long as it doesn't interfere with my investigation.  Are you going to interfere with my investigation son??  No.... I mean no, sir.   Good then maybe you can help me?

    I am looking for a list of every cadet that graduated this University between 1836 and 1865.  Then I need any information you have on each one where they were from, who gave them their officer's commissions, what conflicts they served in and how they died.  Can you do that for me?  

     Okay, I mean yes, sir we will have to go  to the basement to the archives that are on the history of the University.  There is whole lot of really  old American Civil War information down there, as well as relic's.  Sometimes we smoke down.......I mean sometimes we take break down there.

    Here is the information you were looking for detective.  We also have some letters written by a Sgt. Bridges who fought in several engagements such as, Seven Pines, Ball's Bluff, the Seven Days Campaign, Manassas, Second Manassas, Gettysburg and the Battle of the Wilderness.    

    The letters contain  information including his health, worries, holidays, lack of receiving letters, homesickness, the battles and wound history.  The Battle of the Wilderness, during which Bridges sustained his fatal injury, is believed to be the bloodiest campaign in American history.  

     I thought Antietam was the bloodiest?  It was the bloodiest day in American history.  You see detective such huge armies fighting battles over such a vast territory created many problems,  but one of the biggest problems it created was what to do with all the dead soldiers.  

     There was not a grave register service so if you were killed or even wounded the chances of anyone finding your body were very slim.  Soldiers who were lucky enough to get buried were usually done so by a comrade or family member, such as a brother.  

     The soldiers comrade would leave specific details as to the whereabouts of  the fallen soldier.  The many family members searching for loved ones who were lucky enough would often receive letters from other soldiers who survived the war.  Sometimes they would find their loved ones remains and sometimes they never did.  

     Here is a letter from a farm boy from around the Natchez area his home would have been closer to Brookshire today.   Please be careful handling it detective we are not supposed to let visitors in this area.  

     Go ahead and read, it says, " Father,  I have found the body of my brother Patrick, he has no life left in him.  I am low on the blessed crop that comes from our fields.  He was shot in the face by canister fire from a cannon as we broke through the Union lines.  I barely survived and buried him in the fourth row of the Peach orchid underneath the fifth tree."   Signed A.H. Gentry.  

      After the war was over,  our federal government forced by pressure from the families of the dead began a huge operation to locate the bodies of fallen soldiers and give them a proper burial.  Since there was absolutely no way of identifying most of these soldiers their existence  was simply were  lost and there was no closure for families, especially in the South.

     For the most part soldiers who were killed in battle were not buried and hundreds of thousands of corpses would be found in backyards were perhaps someone had been helping them before they died or in large fields, as well as in every lane, river embankment,  and left bones littered throughout the country side.  It was said that federal government had recovered at least 40,000 bodies between Natchez and Vicksburg most of which were not buried.  

     (Coughing in the background, Father in Law enters room)   I found some great information what did you find Dan?  Well, I am still finding more evidence, but take a look at this letter home from one of the Gentry brothers.  

    It starts, "Father, we have fought in every major battle of the war.  Patrick is dead and we are now very tired.  He was a very good soldier and totally fearless on the battlefield.  Father we are both very very tired.  We are out of nutrition and without Patrick we do not expect to come home.  With the cycle broken there is no hope."  

     I think this would give Gentry a very good reason to get his oldest son to take the Oath.  Yeah, that's right and it would also give his son a damn good reason to get the hell out of town.  He could have used the tunnels to get to port.  Damn, that's it!! The ships were burned right.  So the oldest son and his pregnant wife used the tunnels to get to the ships with the remaining slaves.  That's what I think dad, but they never made it back out.

   What do you mean they didn't make it out??  Gentry!  What? Gentry!  He locked them in the tunnels.  My God.  He found out that the oldest son was leaving and the cycle would have been broken for ever.  The only way to keep him here would be to lock him up.  The key dad.  What the key it was to lock him in the tunnels. 

  This is going to sound crazy, but I think he locked him down there and promised him that if he killed his wife and child he could come out.  I don't think he did it. The alter down there it was in front of the door.  I think he locked them up down there and made him watch the continuous sacrifice of slaves to fertilize the crops.  He told his son he would stop if he killed his wife.

     I haven't told anybody this, but when I got knocked out in the tunnel I had a dream.  A dream Dan?  Yes,  it was slaves.  They were filthy and covered in feces screaming for help.  I think may dream was a vision.  Gentry was trying to force his son to kill his wife, but I think he sacrificed himself to save her.  

     How would that keep the cycle from breaking.  Well, we never found out what age he was supposed to be sacrificed we just assumed it didn't happen when it planned.  What if he planned on killing himself?   This would have saved her, as well as the child and continued the cycle.  Well, I'm getting impatient.  Who is down there then.  Your right something doesn't fit.  It's time to go back down there.  I hope you still have your water boots.