Question of the Week: 5/29-6/4/17
It’s Memorial Day.
Do you have a favorite memorial or graveyard monument, plaque, or marker honoring all Civil War soldiers or a particular individual?
It’s Memorial Day.
Do you have a favorite memorial or graveyard monument, plaque, or marker honoring all Civil War soldiers or a particular individual?
At Chickamauga there is a single grave marker belonging to John Ingram, private Company K 1st Confederate Regiment of Georgia Volunteers, Killed September 19, 1863. He lies where he fell. There is something deeply sad & compelling about this single grave isolated in the woods. Unlike the mathematically exact geometry of the national cemeteries, this stone focuses the mind. Perhaps it is the lack of hyperbole in the inscription, “KILLED” rather than died that strips away the protective layers. I am a National Battlefield living history volunteer. We travel to Chickamauga for their anniversary programs. I never fail to spend a while at Pvt Ingram’s gravesite.
That is chilling and yet extraordinary. Thanks for sharing.
It’s meaningful to know who he was, and where he died, and to have it attract your thoughtful visits. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if each soldier had at least one special visitor now and again, even after all this time?
So many young lads with their lives ahead of them cut down.
I participate in the Hallowed Ground lantern tour of Stones River National Battlefield cemetery. I was there on Saturday for our Memorial Day program. What makes Private Ingram’s stone so powerful is that it is the only one known on the battlefield. All others have been disinterred & reburied in manicured cemeteries. I believe his family wanted him left where he fell… would be appropriate. In a way, he stands in for all the boys & the families who suffered a tragic loss on that field.
In Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Rochester, NY, many of our Civil War vets are interned in a special plot with a large celtic cross and a bronze eagle honoring their service. I try to stop by whenever I’m there to honor family and friends.
Colonel Elmer Ellsworth’s grave and family plot next to the Hudson River in Hudson View Cemetery in Saratoga, New York is a lovely place. His marker is a tall obelisk crowned by a brass eagle, and his family is buried in a fenced-in plot. It is quiet there, except for the cicadas and an occasional whisper of the breeze. I brought flowers, thinking it was an original idea. There were other bouquets there, however, and some ribbon knots in red, white, and blue. Ellsworth is remembered.
My great great great cousin Captain George B. Chapman, commander of Chapman’s Battery (Monroe Dixie Battery), Virginia Artillery, died from wounds sustained at the 3rd Battle of Kernstown. He is one of 2 Confederate soldiers burried in the civilian cemetary at the University of Virginia. George was in his early 20’s when he died.
The little known Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Detroit was dedicated in 1872. The dedication was attended by George Custer, Philip Sheridan and Ambrose Burnside. It is a magnificent, elaborate classical style sculpture commemorating the soldiers and sailors of Michigan who fought in the Civil War. It still stands today in Campus Martius Park in downtown Detroit.
Two now The monument at V.M. I. . Virgin mourning her sons {Cadets at New Market Va. }
And now the four monuments torn down in new orleans for all the WRONG reasons.
n.o. not in caps on purpose .