A Grave Concern: Pearl Harbor Wordless Wednesday

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A Grave Concern: Millage Wordless Wednesday

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A Grave Concern: Uncommon names

Most resources suggest that Orsa as a woman’s name is derived from the Latin word for “bear.” Orsa Lander sleeps in Chester Township Cemetery.

In the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, you can find the grave of Blodwyn Tipton. My quick and not entirely scientific research (can’t believe everything on the internet, you know) indicates that Blodwyn is a Welsh name that means “white flower.”

Asenath Harris Gillam is buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo. The name Asenath is Biblical: the name of the Egyptian woman who is given to Jacob (son of Joseph) as a wife by the Pharoah.

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A Grave Concern: The Dental Corps?

In today’s edition of things I never knew, we have the Dental Corps. Both the Army and Navy had a Dental Corps by World War I, formally established by an Act of Congress in 1911 and 1912, respectively.  This was not done out of altruism, but as a response to the need for a system of dental care for soldiers that had plagued the military since the Revolutionary War.

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A Grave Concern: The first to die

Lentz
Albert J.
Pvt Hdq Co 13th Infantry Div
Born in Gettysburg Oct. 17th, 1895
Killed in action at Catigny, France
April 27, 1918
The first Gettysburg boy to make the supreme sacrifice in the World War*

What is it about being the first to die that grants one recognition? I’ve looked at this before, with David Eldridge (who has the distinction of being the first European to die in the Western Reserve). It’s certainly not an honor very many people would vie for. Albert Lentz, from what I can tell, had done nothing particularly noteworthy before his departure for service in Europe. I’m not saying he wasn’t a perfectly nice young man, loved by friends and family, because I don’t know – he seems to have been living an average unrecorded life. Suddenly, he has the misfortune to be the first Gettysburg fatality in the Great War, and he’s a household name – really, he gave his name to the American Legion post in Gettysburg. But what is it about being first? For a far-off war, is it the first body that is not just a body, but the shell of a person who we used to know? For a new place, is it the knowledge that even if we move from this spot, some small part of us will also remain here with the first person we have broken ground to bury?

*Any errors in transcription are my own. I tried to confirm my transcription with online sources, but others disagreed on items I am confident I can read clearly.

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A Grave Concern: “The last full measure of devotion…”

Lincoln’s now-famous Gettysburg address was given at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg. The first monument placed in the National Cemetery was the Soldiers National Monument. The cornerstone was laid in 1865 and the monument was finished four years later. The monument sits at the center of the cemetery. Burials of Union Civil War soldiers fan out from the statue in four quadrants,.

The monument is topped by the representation of liberty, crowned with a laurel wreath. She holds a second laurel wreath and a sword at rest to represent “the constant struggle for freedom.”

At the base of the column that elevates liberty, there are four other statues.

History

War

Peace

Plenty

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A Grave Concern: No poppies and no rows

All of the free-standing crosses I photographed in the National Cemetery at Gettysburg were stark and simple – a vertical bar with a horizontal crossbeam near the top.  All three were for World War I soldiers who had while in service and two of the three were these simple white constructions that resemble photographs I have seen of the vast World War I cemeteries in France.

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