<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div><span></span></div><div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of today's (October 13, 2013) Spokesman-Review.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><h1 style="font-size: 28px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Forgotten Civil War monument discovered in Idaho cemetery</h1><h5 class="subhead" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 12px; font-size: 16px; clear: both; line-height: 1; color: rgb(68, 68, 68); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">1911 memorial stone was obscured by a juniper</h5><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">IDAHO FALLS – Early in December, Elaine Johnson was at the Rose Hill Cemetery searching for the grave of her great-great-grandfather, a veteran of the Civil War.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Along the way, she found something else.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“As I looked, I could see just this much of a stone, sticking out of a tree,” she said, demonstrating a small opening with her hands. “I pulled back the branches and, well, I was just amazed.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Johnson stumbled across the only known Civil War monument in eastern Idaho. The monument was installed in 1911 by local members of the Grand Army of the Republic to commemorate Civil War soldiers buried in the cemetery. The Grand Army of the Republic was a 19th century Union Army veterans’ organization that dissolved in the 1950s. When Johnson found the stone, it was almost entirely enveloped by an overgrown Juniper tree. She was stunned.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I couldn’t believe it,” she said.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Johnson contacted the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, the veterans organization that succeeded the Grand Army of the Republic. The Sons are the monument’s legal owners.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Eric Richhart, representative from the Sons of the Union Veterans, contacted the cemetery. In August, the tree was uprooted and the stone removed for restoration.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The roughly $600 restoration will be funded by the Sons’ national organization, Richhart said. The stone will be reset with a new concrete base and adorned with a plaque stating it was restored by the Sons of the Union Veterans. Richhart hopes to have restoration completed by Veterans Day and would like to hold a Veterans Day rededication ceremony.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“That war is very important to us; it’s part of our heritage,” Richhart said. “The monument talks to us, it tells the story of a war that’s been said many, many times.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">A May 30, 1911, Idaho Register article said the monument was installed on Memorial Day that year by local members of the Grand Army of the Republic’s Post 34. According to the article, the ceremony was held at the “Scenic theatre” – a silent film venue on Broadway that since has been torn down.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Through her research, Johnson discovered more than 130 Civil War veterans are buried in the region. Yet poor record-keeping back then has prevented many of the graves from being located. Finding the Rose Hill monument has inspired Johnson to continue the search.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I would like to think my great-great-grandfather was leading me to that monument,” she said. “I would like to think (the veterans) would be glad they’re being remembered, to know they’re not forgotten – it was a serious sacrifice.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Elaine Johnson stumbled across Eastern Idaho’s only known Civil War monument at Rose Hill Cemetery in Idaho Falls. The monument was installed in 1911 by local members of the Grand Army of the Republic.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><img src="cid:06F0C616-45E7-4B80-BBDC-6BEBD90FA824" alt="id_13memorial_t620.jpg" id="06F0C616-45E7-4B80-BBDC-6BEBD90FA824" width="620" height="774"></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">---------------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </span></div><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>