[Vision2020] There's a Lesson Here Somewhere . . .

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of "Wreaths Across America" at:

http://www.wreathsacrossamerica.org/waa-wreaths-placed-to-honor-veterans-of-the-civil-war/

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WAA Wreaths Placed To Honor Veterans Of The Civil War

Here’s an interesting story that was submitted to WAA HQ, courtesy of Fred Boughton, Jr:

For a few years, William Keith of Iowa and Joseph Graham of Virginia were forced to be enemies, even though they did not even know each other.
In their old age, they met in Las Vegas and became good friends — so good they decided to spend an eternity together.

The two Civil War veterans — Keith a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and Graham a Confederate — who died more than 76 years ago are buried side-by-side at Woodlawn Cemetery in Las Vegas.

Said Len Becker, of the Las Vegas Chapter of Daughters of Union Veterans, “We learned from military records that they never met in battle,” Len Becker said. “Graham fought in Virginia, while Keith fought in Tennessee and Mississippi.”

Michael Green, professor of U.S. and Nevada history at the Community College of Southern Nevada, says fraternization during the war — though discouraged by the generals — and North-South friendships after the war were not unusual.

“It was not uncommon that after a day’s battle enemy soldiers would talk to each other from opposite sides of a creek, and even share supplies or a plug of chewing tobacco,” said Green, a former Las Vegas newspaper editor who has extensively studied the Civil War.

“But that they would meet many years later in Las Vegas — that is unusual.”

The two were buried beneath a granite shaft grave marker that reads:

“Civil War Veterans 1861-1865. Arrayed in the conflict, in strife and dismay/One wore the blue, the other the gray/Time brought its changes, the men came to know/The joy which true friendship, in life can bestow.”

The wreath placement was in conjunction with the National Ceremony on December 10, 2010. Long-time friends after the Civil War, Joseph P. Graham, a Confederacy veteran, and William B. Keith, a Union Veteran were buried side-by side.  Commemorations in their honor are held each year by the two local Civil War Veterans units.

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Picture shows Sons of the Confederate member, Bill Jones, left, and Sons of the Union member, Leonard Becker, right, placing wreaths on to Veterans of the Civil War that were buried in side-by-side graves in Las Vegas, NV.







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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"If not us, who?
If not now, when?"

- Unknown


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