Memorial Day

Hopefully most of you did think about the true meaning of today, and remember those lost in our country's history. I have to admit, when I was younger, Memorial Day weekend was basically the start of the summer season, but now I try and reflect on what it really means. We went out to a cemetery here in Frederick County this morning to help out by adding a few flags that seemed to be missing. Have a list of vets for the cemetery, so that certainly helps. Found a couple of Confederate graves that weren't marked, but they are hard to identify unless you know because there are no military markings. I guess it had something to do with being from Maryland, and being a state that was divided, it was better just to work on reconciliation. It is not a military cemetery, and I know it had nothing to do with North or South because one of the Union soldiers was missing a flag and he had the military headstone. Just didn't feel right unless they were all marked.

Also saw an interesting display at the Monocacy Battlefield Visitor's center today. A student at one of the local schools had done a project on cemetery burials of Union and Confederate soldiers after battles in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Remember, there were no dog tags in those days. If you were not identified by someone in your unit, or left behind with no identifying letters or other paperwork, then you ended up as an unknown. There were a lot of these in this war. She had a picture of a monument down in Silver Spring to unknown Confederate dead after the battle at Ft. Stevens. I believe there are 17 or so in the grave. I used to be interested in this marker as a kid as it resides in a cemetery where our family used to attend church for many years. There was also a very interesting summary of the discussions in both Maryland and Pennsylvania about burying Confederate dead after the battles of Antietam and Gettysburg. When the remains were reinterred after the battles and these cemeteries were established, the people of Pennsylvania were adamant no Rebel soldier would lie there. Their remains were sent to Richmond, many of which probably ended up in Hollywood Cemetery, where thousands of Confederate soldiers were laid to rest.

Maryland on the other hand apparently debated the subject, and only allowed Union burials in the National Cemetery, but did make allowances for Confederate burials outside of it. I'm going to have to look into that a little more next year when I head up there for the anniversary of the battle. Monocacy did have a field of flags flying to commemorate both sides that died there, and it was interesting that they used the Second National flag for the Southern soldiers, not the battle flag we normally associate. According to the talk we got down at Ft. Sumter, this flag was eventually replaced because in battle it could be mistaken for a surrender flag. They later added a red stripe on the far right edge.

Last thing to mention is a book I bought today at the visitors center called " Civil War Maryland - Stories from the Old Line State" by Richard P Cox. Read it in one afternoon. It had some stuff I had heard before, but a number of things I wasn't that familiar with. Some good info about how Maryland supplied many of the leading figures in the Confederate navy, the abolition of slavery in the state, the parole system and the camp near Annapolis, and a number of others. Anyone interested in local history, I would recommend it.