The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1881-08-05
An HOUR IN A NATIONAL
CEMETERY

As anything in connection with the
heroic dead of the late war is Of inter-
est to your numerous readers, / send
you an account of a visit made to the
National Cemetery located at Grafton,
West Virginia. The oldest record that
we have any account of where money
was raid for real estate is that account
given of Abs0lem, when he bought a
piece of land for burying ground for
his beloved wife, Sarah, and from that
day to this if there IS any one thing
that marks civilization from barbarism,
christianity from paganism, it is the
care taken of our dead. And right nobly
has our government shown its respect
for the fallen heroes of the late war
The national cemetery here consists of
31aacres, surrounded by a substantial
stone wall, divided off into three ter
races. You enter the cemetery by a
flight of stone steps, and each separate
terrace is reached in the same manner.
The grounds cost $500, the walls ST.
900, and the superintendent home and
visitors room, $1,000. Two terraces
are used as burying ground, and the
third is used for superintendent home.
visitors room and garden. Beautiful
shade trees are planted all around, and
the grounds are kept in the most per-
feet order. 1854 graves are within the
enclosure; $40 where the names are
known, and 634 unknown. The gov
eminent places a small marble tomb
stone at each grave. giving name and
regiment when known, and simply the
number when unknown. But where
friends have placed tOmbstones they
are allowed to remain. AS one looks
over this city of the dead they are
struck with the number of unknown
graves more than one-half -and as
we go back in memory's page and re-
member that word missing" and look
at those unknown graves, we realize
what that word meant. Many fond
wife and mother cling to that word,
hoping against hope that the loved one
might still live, but their hoping ended
in despair. There was no large battles
fought in this part of Virginia; but
amidst marching and countermarch-
ing, and the long and tiresome raids,
when the weary, tired or sick soldier
dropped out by the way, crack went
the unerring rifle, and one more was
reported missing, and another UNI
known grave was made. A foreigner
visiting this cemetery could tell by the
tombstones the class of men that COM
posed the armies. AS you enter the
grounds the first stone to the right is
that of B. Hall, an Ohio soldier, who
died at the age of u. a little further
on to the left is the grave of John
Lorm, a New YORK soldier; as the stone
says, killed in battle April 20, 1863
fell in defence of his country, aged SO
years. The grayhaired sire side by
side with the beardless youth. An
other stone says buried on the spot
where he fell. Here is a young man
who seems to have been a regimental
pet, as the stone is erected by his com
rades in arms, and they mourn thai
they will no more h ear his cheerful
voice as they sit around the campfire.
YOnder, by an unknown grave, blooms
a solitary rose, planted, perhaps. by
some one knowing that somewhere in
that sacred enclosure repOs ed their be
loved dead. If Grey's Elegy on {
Country. Churchyard was fitting, how
much more appropriate here, as it may
emphatically be said: -
Beneath these sods there lays
Hands that the rod of empires might have swayed.
: Correspondence Badger State Ban
neT. 6