On Memorial Day
There are war monuments all across America. I’ve seen many
of them. I make a point to look at them. The great monuments to the horse
artillery that stand in front of the Capitol building in Washington show the
energy and determination of the men in action. Some monuments are on the actual
battlefields. The massive granite shrine that marks where Pennsylvania regiments
stood at Gettysburg and the substantial, but simple markers that show where
each brigade dug in on top of Kennesaw Mountain. (My great great Grandfather’s
unit is listed there, the 3rd Texas Cavalry.) Small towns across
America have war monuments too. It seems like every little town across the
South has one in the town square or where the center of town used to be. These monuments are often a single soldier or
just as often a simple obelisk with the names of the dead. When I look at these
monuments, I’ve always thought of the men they memorialize. What they did, what it meant to their
comrades, and what they gave for our country.
I saw a photograph of a monument that made me think of
something else this year. The words were “Erected
by the Ladies Memorial Association 1871.” Those simple words let me know that this was
not a monument erected by the veterans as so many others. It was “Erected by
the ladies…” Looking at this monument, for the first time, I didn’t think of
the men. I thought of the women who missed them. The “ladies” were the wives,
mothers, and sisters who would never see their loved ones again. In the years right
after the war, when some had lost everything, they must have set about the task
of building this monument with energy, love, and devotion. It became a memorial
to their men and how much these men meant to them.
When I think of what Memorial Day means, I think of the
sacrifice of the fallen and what they did to shape and defend our nation. But I’ll
also remember what else that sacrifice meant.
That 150 years ago, the people who put up those monuments had suffered
the loss on a personal level. From now on, I’ll look at the monuments they
built and think not just of the soldiers, but of the people who loved them. Thank
you ladies.
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| Photo copyright Hannah Pop Rocki. Used with permission |
