Photographer Alexander Gardner stood here just two days after the guns fell silent and captured a poignant photograph of the aftermath of the battle. United States soldiers dug over 4,000 graves in the days and weeks following the battle, and the Federal dead often were given better care, as seen here. The soldier in the marked grave is twenty-one-year-old 1st Lt. John A. Clark of Company D, 7th Michigan Infantry, who was killed when his regiment charged into the West Woods visible in the background of the photograph. His remains were later removed and taken back to his hometown for burial in Woodland Cemetery, Monroe, Michigan, and he probably made it home because of that wooden marker.
