The Daily Dispatch: May 26, 1862., [Electronic resource]

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Transportation of the dead

--As the peculiar circumstances of the times renders this sad duty to our friends often necessary, and generally very expensive, or even impracticable, to procure iron coffins for the purpose, we would call attention to the following simple means by which it can be effected, at any season, at a very moderate cost. Take any wooden coffin, and after the body is deposited in it, wrap it in a cotton cloth which has been perfectly saturated in tar that has been heated to a boiling point. This renders it even more impervious to the escape of official than the best iron coffin. This can be placed in a box of much less size than those usually used where charcoal is introduced to all the space between the coffin and the box to absorb the effluvia.

If it is wished to show the face of the deceased, glass can be inserted in the lid, and covered with paper so that the cloth can be cut and the features exposed, the paper preventing the tar from interfering with the glass. The writer his seen bodies transported long distances in this manner, in warm weather, without the least inconvenience--Macon Messenger.