Not far from my sister’s house along the path, there’s a memorial and graveyard with a line of identical tombstones. Unknown soldier, Unknown soldier, Unknown soldier, Unknown soldier. 22 Unknowns, only one stone with a name. No gold here, no carefully chosen wooden coffin, only a line of small white markers like giant Chiclets in the snow. I so hope that some shabtis were buried along with these forgotten men. Buried on Christmas Day 1776, victims of sickness and exposure before the Battle of Trenton.
My kids and nieces and nephew ran along the line of graves, trying to get out energy before the brunt of the storm hit and we would be housebound for the next 24 hours. Even with L.L. Bean down parkas and snow boots and hats and gloves, our fingers tingled with the cold, our toes and noses in serious danger of going numb.
2 comments:
Hi there- thanks for your excellent photos of those graves at Washington Square Park from 2007. I was there today and you're the only person on the WWW who had photos. I'm a history teacher and I wanted to use them in class.
Thanks-Marc
Glad you found the photos. Quite an evocative place, especially in the winter. You get a real sense of what life -- and death -- must have been like for the poor men camped there. Do you teach in the New Hope school district?
Post a Comment