The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-03-31
SOLDIERS GRAVES.
How Those Mt Old Camp Floyd Are
Neglected.
Fairfield Depot, March 20.

Neglected.
Fairfield Depot, March 20.
To the Editor of The Herald.
Not long since one of the Salt Lake
city papers published a letter con-
corning the neglected army graves near
this place. The publication of this let
ter and the seeming Indifference with
which the matter is being treated
have led me to again visit the grave
yard and make still further search
and a still more complete examina-
ton of the premises.
Than this graveyard, a more DESC
late, dismal spot would be hard to find.
Located near the lower end of a long
barren slope on the mountain side, the
graves unkept for many years, some
badly sunken, which catch water from
the melting SHOWS in the springtime,
the pitiful remains of the rude wooden
slab upon which a companion has
carved a few tender initials and sad
dates, which were for so short a time
to preserve the memory of his dead
soldier friend, a couple of skeletons of
young sheep which were caught and
carried into this lonesome, isolated
place by a hungry wolf and robbed of
| their flesh, and one single four-square
fence enclosing one grave, now relieved
of its picketS, frame wrecked and a
total wreck, the huge holes burrowed
in and around the graves by some
varment, and the hardy sage brush
overgrowing the site, all together add
to ones natural feelings for the dead
still another feeling of fear and terror
and patriotic respect for these disap-
pointed dead.
would like to respectfully ask just
why this cemetery cannot be looked
after this spring, and repaired We
, certainly have some men somewhere
in this state who can see to this in ad-
dition to their other duties, and if
not, we surely should have the cour-
age and zeal to add this to some ones
duties, or employ some one for this
act alone. OF course the men are
| dead, and have been dead for over
thirty years. and some of them may
have died before they fired a shot for
this country's welfare, but we at least
know on which side they were There
are men buried here who were wound
ed in the Mexican war, others fought
other battles, and whether this grave
yard is to wither away beneath the
destruction of the elements, and the
/ occupants of the dismal city forgotten,
Will, IOT duSHC we KNOW, never make
any serious difference to the United
States soldiers who sleep there but it
ought to make a difference to the lfv-
ing soldiers and the rest of US who
may some day lay down forever the
implements of warfare inside the
rough walls of a barrack somewhere,
and our companions hear the barrack-
master say Boys, he's dead" and then
to be laid dismally and mournfully
away in a grave to be afterwards
grown over by brush that is uncouth,
or to be washed away by the muddy
waters which gather on the hillside
There is half enough rock on the
ground to build the fence around the
plot, and others can be hauled from a
distance of one mile by team: the
quantity of lime and cement can be
readily calculated, and the expense of
the repairs oan be easily estimated by
the proper person, and the entire out
lay need not exceed 500 If there
is some one in reach of this
letter whose duty it is to
look after things of this kind.
let him know that greater piece of
| neglect, a more culpable piece of care
| lessness, a more serious piece of for
bearance than this, to permit army
graves to waste away after this kind
of style, is seldom brought to our at
tention, or else we are indeed timid to
think that United States soldiers dc
not fare we'll, die remembered. or rest
undisturbed ever after.
B. W. RICE.