From the February 5, 1867 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Some children at play in the grounds surrounding the Naval Hospital, about four o’clock yesterday afternoon, discovered a portion of a man’s body protruding from under the thawing snow. The officers in charge being informed, sent for Coroner Lynch, who immediately set to work to investigate the matter.

In a ditch on the inside of the high wall surrounding the Hospital, and about that portion running parallel with Dead Man’s Lane, lay the body of a man. The snow was removed from around it, and the body taken out, when it was found that rats had eaten the flesh off the left arm and side, and were preparing to make an abode in the chest.”