A Memorial Day reminder

WWI & WWII American Cemetery in Ardennes area of Belgium

Memorial Day is about war – about the ones who left and didn’t come home – usually. That’s fitting.

But really, this day memorializes much more than that.

"...His comrade leans over and strives to rouse him. He shouts
‘Charlie! Charlie!’ But the words fall upon an ear already deaf to 
all earthly sounds...

”I think to myself how many times has he heard that name in his 
far-off New England home, from a mother’s lips, a sister’s, 
it may be yet dearer lips...

The body is borne forward... stretched upon a board and covered with
the flag he died to serve...

I turn away...[The] soldier who had shouted ‘Charlie!’ in the dead 
man’s ear hands me the ‘descriptive list,’ which he has taken from 
the pocket of the deceased. I carry it to the light, and read, 
‘Charles Myrick, of Co. A, Capt. Perry, 8th regt. Maine Volunteers,
enlisted August 23, 1861, at Lowell, Maine, age 21 years.”

This Civil War article was filed by a correspondent of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper February 7, 1863. [1]

The reporter wrote this article to give his readers a sense of the tragedy of war…the feeling of just another slip of paper with a “descriptive list,” so another soldier’s passing can be marked.

This article and others like it were printed again and again in thousands of newspapers during eight or more wars over the last 150 years. It represents the perfect illustration of what Memorial Day is really all about.

At Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA, the Memorial Day ceremony includes placing a wreath at that grave of graves – The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Laying of the Wreath, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Arlington Nat’l Cemetery

Much ado is made in war of the “Unknown Soldier,” and it should be. It’s a soldier, whose identity because of the way he or she suffered death in war, is “known only to God.”

But they are not the only “unknowns” of war.

In the Leslie’s article – the ONLY known identity is that person’s who didn’t return – Charles Myrick’s. The unidentified are Charles’ comrade, his mother, sister, or his “dearer lips.”

Those are the other “unknowns” – the other casualties of war.

But they lived – survived – went on – (or so we all say).

But while the soldiers like Myrick never got to live a full life, we must never forget that their families and comrades never did either.

‘his widow and his orphan’

Yes, they lived on after Myrick; but they also lived WITHOUT Myrick. They too died a little, lived a little less, and were denied a full life without his presence.

Memorial Day is the story about the true tragedy of war – the one who didn’t live AND the ones who did.

Abraham Lincoln had it right…

“…to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan…” [2]

Food for thought and have a safe Memorial Day!

Mac

WORKS CITED

[1] “The Soldier’s Funeral.” Published in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, February 7, 1863.

[2] Roy P. Basler, editor, “Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865,” Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, v.VIII:332-33.