Survivors of the massacre hid among the dead to escape the secessionist police.

Evidence

The bodies all around began to cook and swell in the heat: fingers the size of pickles, forearms rising like loaves until as big and gamy as hams festering in the noontime sun. When the secesh police began their rounds, Lazarus got to crouching, then creeping, until—at last—he had to lie down among the dead, coffining himself between two fallen neighbors, readying himself for the shot to the head. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 763

Categorization

• FICTION: The narrative device of a living man coffining himself between corpses to escape police rounds is a vivid survival scene with strong visceral power.