Memorial Day 2007

An outstanding article today in the New York Times on restoration of Civil War graves in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. Teams of volunteers have worked for over five years to recover and rediscover the graves of Civil War veterans there. Today, some 1200 new gravestones will be dedicated. The director of this volunteer project, Jeff Richman, the cemetery's historian, estimates they have discovered 3,000 graves, and there may be an additional 6,000.

Evidently many of the gravestones just sank into the earth over the years. And some made of limestone just disintegrated, and had no legible information on them.

There is a fine video on the Times' web site as well.

A moving tribute to those who, as Lincoln said, "gave the last full measure of devotion."