War Dead Are Reminders of the Price of Our Liberty (1987)

by Jeffrey Bingham Mead
Greenwich Time, Greenwich, Connecticut
Memorial Day, 1987

Today we as a nation set aside our normal concerns and bow our heads in honor of those who perished defending our country and its people. Observed on the last Monday in May, Memorial Day is an official holiday throughout the United States, and the occasion is commemorated anywhere in the world where American soldiers are buried – in such places as Europe, Puerto Rico in the Philippines.

On Memorial Day, set by presidential proclamation, the president lays a wreath of flowers in solemn ceremony at The tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery. The custom of placing flowers on the graves of the war dead began after the American Civil War on May 5, 1866 in Waterloo, New York, officially recognized by Congress as the birthplace of this tradition.

Two years later, on May 30, 1868, Gen. John Logan, president of the Union soldiers veterans association, called the Grand Army of the Republic, declared that May 30 should be a day to place "flowers on the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion." Gen. Logan further declared that, 

"It is the purpose of the commander-in-chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope that it will be kept from year-to-year while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of the departed… Let no ravages of time testify to coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of a free and undivided Republic."

After the conclusion of the first World War, Memorial Day was set aside to honor fallen soldiers of all American wars. Over time, this tradition was extended to all deceased relatives and friends in both the civilian and military sectors.

Today, observances center around the somber ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery at the Tomb of the Unknowns, though it must be said that the Vietnam War monument in Washington gets earned and special attention on this day. For those who laid down their lives in an unpopular war must never be forgotten by any of us, and our shameful treatment of those who lived to return to an ungrateful nation never repeated.

Memorial Day and the commemoration of our fallen soldiers has been a source of inspiration and subject of reflection by various personalities, both famous and not-so-famous. Rear Adm. John R. McKinney said to our nation many years ago, 

"We must not allow our riches to make us satiated citizens of weak physical characteristics, loose morals, and decreased mentality. If we do so, we are not honoring those departed were heroes who we memorialized today. They will have died in vain."

Poets and songwriters have throughout history sought to capture the soul and spirit of this day. From a song written during the post-Civil War era is this verse entitled "The Blue and the Gray:"

Sadly, but not with unbraiding, 

The generous deed was done; 

In the storm of the years that are fading 

No braver battle was won; 

Under the sod and dew, 

Waiting the judgment day; 

Under the blossoms, the Blue, 

Under the garlands, the Gray.

A poem worthy of an epitaph was penned by Sir Walter Scott:

Soldier, rest, the warfare o'er, 

Dream of fighting fields no more 

Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, 

Morn of toil, nor night of waking.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, mentor of the New England Transcendentalists in the 19th century, wrote a poem that is commemorative of a Civil War monument in his native Concord, Mass.:

Spirit, that made these heroes dare 

To die and leave their children free, 

Bid time and nature gently spare 

The shaft we raise to them and thee.

Many graveyards locally will be speckled with American flags and flowers. Some have somber epitaphs, like that of Elnathan Husted, who died on David's Island on March 4, 1864, and is buried at the cemetery adjacent to the Second Congregational Church:

Call Him Not Back From His Home Above 

Call Him Not Back To This World Of Care 

Leave Him In Heaven With His Saviors Love 

And Earnestly Strive To Meet Him There.

In 1950, during the Cold War, a parade was held in central Greenwich on Memorial Day, attracting 5,000 spectators. Addressing the crowd, then-First Selectmen Wilbur Peck called attention to a little girl who had led the drum majorettes in the parade and said,

"This child is a reminder of all the children of the world we have to prepare for them. We have something new with us now. They call it a cold war. It is up to us to keep this country physically and morally strong to combat that cold war."

Throughout our nation's history, America has sought to stand for things morally and spiritually good. Our country, whether one may agree with its policies or not, has desired peace, yet there must be no illusions that there are those that wish us ill-will and defeat.

Our fallen soldiers and heroes who defended this Republic are reminders of the price that has been paid, and our celebration of their memory a reminder to us of what we enjoy but take for granted.

Perhaps someday we will answer the question that poet B.Y. Williams poses and then asks, 

"What is the truth mankind must learn

before all wars shall cease?"

Jeffrey Bingham Mead, who lives in Greenwich, is a direct descendent of one of the founding families of the town. He is a freelance writer and a member of the Greenwich Historical Society.