One hundred and fifty years ago today, South Carolina became the first state to pass an Ordinance of Secession. Eleven more state governments would follow suit. (That count includes Missouri and Kentucky, that each had two competing governments on either side of the issue.) The Civil War would not officially start until April 12, 1865, with the conflict at Fort Sumter. Over the next four years, the bloody war would claim an estimated 620,000 lives on both sides before the Confederate States of America surrendered and rejoined the Union.
It is difficult to walk through an American cemetery and not notice the significant role that the Civil War played in American life. There are the government issue headstones for veterans, of course, but then there are the personal markers and family monuments that often list the unit in which the soldier served, or the battle in which he died, such as Darius Gilbert at Chattanoga. The GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) flag holders are everywhere in Ohio cemeteries.
A Grave Concern 