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IN THE TWILIGHT of his career, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes – a Civil War veteran – often paid respects to the thousands of unknown soldiers buried at Arlington National Cemetery. On one such visit, Holmes commented to a secretary:
“Can you imagine a greater gift than that? You not only gave your life, but your identity as well. … They gave their all. They gave their very names.”
The anecdote was recounted by the late author Brian Pohanka in a foreword to Ryan Lindbuchler’s book “Gone but not forgotten: Civil War Veterans of Northeastern Pennsylvania.” Lindbuchler made a valiant attempt to preserve the names and lore of many area residents who died in that epic conflict.
As noted Sunday in The Times Leader, this spring marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War, a crucible of American bloodshed that forged a cohesive country.
At Arlington, Holmes spoke of the unknown soldiers whose bodies could not be shipped home because no one knew where home was. But after 150 years, even those who were identified are becoming unknown – figuratively, as most of us forget individuals in the distant past, and literally, as names on tombstones erode to a blur.
Lindbuchler’s book took a step toward preventing such sacrifice from fading into obscurity. The sesquicentennial of the Civil War offers an opportunity for us all to advance that cause.
For the next four years America will commemorate our most painful war, remembering those who fought it. We should do no less locally. It is time to pool resources and put the names of local Civil War soldiers back into the public eye, potentially saving some from oblivion.
Joshua Chamberlain said it best – again quoted in Pohanka’s foreword. The Maine College professor became a hero at Gettysburg when he led a badly outnumbered union flank on a charge down Little Round Top, stunning a superior Confederate force into retreat.
“We wish to be remembered,” Chamberlain said. “Willing to die, we are not willing to be forgotten.”
It is time to pool resources and put the names of local Civil War soldiers back into the public eye…