Comments on: Memorial Day Comes to Deseret, 1873

By: Hunter

Hunter — Tue, 26 May 2009 04:00:59 +0000

Yes, best wishes on this Memorial Day. I had occasion to be in the Salt Lake City Cemetery yesterday, and there were lots of folks milling about. Considering that it was yet the day before Memorial Day, I’d say that modern Salt Lakers have taken to the celebration pretty well!

This was a very compelling read, Ardis. I didn’t know any of this 19th-century aspect of the holiday memorializing the fallen dead. “Decoration Day” – I like it.

By: Curt A.

Curt A. — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:17:35 +0000

A clarification: “Battle Creek” is a local name for the stream that runs into Bear River, where the massacre took place Jan 29, 1863.

By: Curt A.

Curt A. — Mon, 25 May 2009 20:26:17 +0000

Ardis -
A very interesting Memorial Day post. There are more than 700 Civil War veterans buried in Utah, according to a DAR listing. Among them are those who died fighting Indians at Battle Creek or died soon thereafter of wounds and frozen feet from the battle. They are buried a few yards from where William Gentles was later buried.

John Hunt, color sergeant of the 123rd Illinois, is buried in Salt Lake Cemetery. Tommy Cardon, LDS convert from Italy, 15-year bugler at Camp Floyd, wounded veteran of the 10th Infantry’s fight at Gaines’s Mill, and finally jeweler and photographer in Logan is buried there.Cardon’s jewelry shop was still thriving while I was at USAC but is now closed. John W.A. Lawson, first a private in the 22nd North Carolina Infantry, then captured and imprisoned at Point Lookout, MD, then “galvanized” into the 4th US Volunteers to chase Sioux and Cheyenne for a while before he eventually converted and came to Utah, is buried in Bountiful Cemetery.

The man who established the Dix-Logan GAR post, General Robert G.H. Minty, is buried in Ogden. He was a hero at Chickamauga. The 123rd Illinois, with John Morgan serving, was in Minty’s brigade at that battle. His marker at Bountiful Cemetery shows his 4th US Vols service but omits his NC regiment.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Mon, 25 May 2009 20:01:33 +0000

Wow! It reads like a melodrama, complete with bearded villain wearing a black hat. (Brigham Young taking that part of course, “the ulterior sinister motives of said Brigham Young.”) Very funny if read on one level. Not at all funny on all other levels.

Happy Memorial Day. I’ve thought a bit today about my many ancestors and relatives who served during the many conflicts throughout history: from Trafalgar to all the wars in America; the French-Indian War, the Revolution (fighting on both sides), the War of 1812, the Civil War (Union), the Border conflicts with Mexico, WWI and WWII. I don’t know whether my Civil War-soldier ancestor belonged to the GAR. I would assume he didn’t.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Mon, 25 May 2009 18:40:28 +0000

Bruce, so far as I have found, the Utah GAR banned Mormon members — even those who had served in other states long before they joined the Church — but I’m not aware of other states having banned them. The national GAR ordered the Utah chapter to admit Mormons in 1910; the Utah organization fought that for another year, but finally began to accept Mormon members in 1911. (There had been Mormon members in Utah well before that, though, who “forgot” to mention their religion when they applied.)

I’ve been building a database of GAR members (Mormons and non- ) in Utah; if you or anybody else wants me to check my records for anyone’s membership, it’s easy for me to do.

By: Bruce Crow

Bruce Crow — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:54:41 +0000

My wife has several ancestors who fought in the civil war (on both sides) who subsequently joined the Church. Undoubtedly any loyalty that might have been assumed was forfeit when they were baptized. I wonder if any who were eligible to join the GAR tried to do so.

This is a great reminder of just how blessed we are to live in a time when our loyalty is not questioned.