JPK Huson 1863
Brev. Brig. Gen'l
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2012
- Location
- Central Pennsylvania
Using Becker's eye witness image from November, 1863. The National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Adams County Pennsylvania was dedicated before all those fallen the previous July could be interred there. Men were still dying elsewhere and violent death continued for another full year plus. We laid those to rest, too.
Some of them we feel we knew because a few generations post war we still remember them. Seeing the name of a family member killed in battle generations before you were born brings us closer to the rest. They're all ours. Asking members to please put names to some of those headstones, your ancestors who didn't come home.
Memorial Day remembers those whose service ended on some battlefield, wearing the uniform put on when swearing to protect all of us- no matter what. Long rows of headstones in Arlington, at Gettysburg, Shiloh, Ball's Bluff, City Point and cemeteries across our country awful yet sacred reminders what it means. To serve.
From the Joint Resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives, required the by the Secretary of War, 1866.
.. preserve from desecration the graves of soldiers of the United States who fell in battle or died of disease in hospitals; to secure suitable burial places in which they may be properly interred; and to have the graves enclosed so that the resting places of the honored dead may be kept sacred forever.
There are crosses, headstones and fresh earth in this image. There are also little groups looking down, the name they'd come to see found, moments of grief and loss frozen for us. It's a little chilling and hugely sobering. They were all us.
I'll start. From any war, any cemetery or no cemetery. It's not about my family, it's everyone's.
James Polk Knox Huson, 126th New York, Penn Yan, New York, killed Day 2 when Co B was detailed to clear snipers from the Bliss barn. Between battlefield burial and Bigg's crew enough time had elapsed his grave's ID was lost. He's an unknown in New York's section, grgrgrandfather's brother.
David Adams, 11th Pennsylvania, killed Day 1 at Gettysburg, in the same action that saw Iverson's Brigade vanish, grgrgrandmother's brother. Also buried as unknown in Gettysburg's National Cemetery.
Samuel Huson, killed at Shiloh ' in the first wave through camp ', 14th Illinois. Battlefield grave marker also lost, now one of the regiment's unknowns at Shiloh.