Ronni Hannaman: Memorializing our veterans at Lone Mountain Cemetery

As we celebrate Memorial Day this weekend, a walk in our historic Lone Mountain Cemetery to pay respect to the soldiers and sailors who fought in wars near and far keeps us in touch with the reason this holiday has been so faithfully observed for 153 years.

It was Union Army Gen. John A. Logan, later Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the patriotic organization of Civil War veterans he founded in 1866, who proclaimed “The 30th of May 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village and hamlet churchyard in the land.” He was referring to the 620,000 soldiers lost in the Civil War, the largest human toll of any war. The second highest loss of military lives was in World War II with a total 405,399 casualties.

Even though Nevada was more than 2,500 miles from Gettysburg and other famous eastern battlefields, the Civil War found its way to the hearts of volunteer soldiers who, while they did not see the types of battles fought in the east, sympathized with the cause. 1,200 volunteers from Carson City, Reno, Virginia City, and Dayton were trained at Ft. Churchill to defend the great overland highway and frontier settlements.

About 40 soldiers who died during this time were first buried in Fort Churchill, later reinterred at Lone Mountain with others in the section devoted to the Grand Army of the Republic found in the north section guarded by a statue of a Union soldier first dedicated on Memorial Day 1891 and rededicated on Veterans Day 2004. A number of these gravesites are dedicated to the unidentified remains of a “U.S. soldier” identified by a rusting iron star. It was during this war we became a state earning our slogan “Battle Born.”

Enter through the cemetery gates off Beverly and Roop streets and what seems to be a green park to the east (right side) is a veterans cemetery marked by a veterans memorial lovingly restored by the Carson City Chamber Leadership Class of 2009. Within this section are in-ground headstones of veterans who served our country well. As in the past, the Disabled American Veteran volunteers will place 1,400 flags on graves, creating a virtual sea of red, white, and blue.

Lone Mountain Cemetery was once seven separate cemeteries merged into one in 1971 under the Carson City Parks and Recreation Department. Commander Logan asked those who maintain cemeteries to “Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”

As you stroll through the hallowed grounds of our cemetery, you will learn the history of this city through the epitaphs found on the early gravestones, some of which are quite elaborate. You’ll recognize names now found on our street signs and may wish to pay respect to Carson City founder, Abe Curry.

The Chamber’s Leadership Class of 2014 marked the most historic graves including that of the once very alive Hank Monk, famous stagecoach driver memorialized in Mark Twain’s “Roughing It.” The sweet grave of Twain’s beloved niece Jennie Clemens is identified by an assortment of teacups.

As you walk along the cemetery lanes reflecting on those who once walked our very streets and fought for our freedoms, Mayor Lori Bagwell hopes you will stop by the Civil War section. She states, “I am so proud Carson City recognizes those that served our country and hope you will stop by the Civil War statue and read the inscription. As cemetery historian Cindy Southerland wrote, ‘the monument shines as a fitting tribute that will endure for centuries to come.’ Take a look and see why she is right.”

Let us honor Commander Logan’s directive to “gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of spring-time; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from his honor.”