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GAR members, foreground, dignitaries, and the Ladies Auxiliary gathered to dedicate a new monument. |
In 1909 the
aging veterans of the Grand Army of the
Republic (GAR) and its Ladies’ Auxiliary
gathered on the Square in Woodstock, Illinois on what was then known as Decoration Day. What made
this gathering different from others held annually General John A. Logan, the first Commander-in-Chief of
the GAR issued General Order No. 11 in 1868 calling for annual
observance in honor of the Civil War dead.
It had
been the local custom for local residents gathered armloads of flowers
from their gardens and marched—often by the hundreds—to the Chicago and Northwestern station to
load a special train to the city with blooms.
The flowers were then used to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers and
veterans and then to gather on the Square for a simple ceremony.
This year, after a long fundraising campaign the
veterans and the community gathered to dedicate a handsome new monument in the
center of the Square—a high, polished column surmounted by the statue of a private soldier. The four sides of the base were decorated
with symbols of service—an anchor, crossed rifles, sabers, and cannon representing
the Navy, Infantry, cavalry, and artillery
branches of the Army.
It was a solemn occasion as well as a joyful one.
From then on, even after the last of the gray
beards passed and after new veterans from the Spanish American War and Philippine
Insurrection, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and all
of the endless almost nameless untidy little wars afterwards, Woodstock
gathered on and around the Square for what became known as Memorial Day.
More than 15 years ago members of what was then
the Congregational Unitarian Church
began a tradition of the Sunday before Memorial Day of marching the two blocks
to the Square in silence behind a flag donated to the church in memory of Thomas Lounsbury, an 18 year old church
member who died on the USS Arizona
on December 7, 1949 and was the first Woodstock casualty of World War II.
Gathering around the Monument the Rev. Dan Larsen or one of the interim ministers since his retirement would lead a prayer and a moment of silence. Then participants lay flowers on the Monument and return in silence to the church for the rest of the worship service. It was simple, even stark and always very moving.
This year members of what now known as the Unitarian Universalist Congregation will gather to observe
Memorial Day in our new McHenry home. I sure a moving service will be held and once
again many of us will weep.
But I will miss the walk to the Square, the
bright sunshine, the wind whipping the flag, the simple sacrifice of laying
flowers on a wrought iron fence surrounding an old Monument.
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