Traveling back to remember

This Memorial Day we wound our way to the Fort Boise Military Reserve Cemetery. Perched aside a hill, it is the final resting place for some 247 pioneers and military personnel – including veterans from the Mexican War, Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, and the Civil War. The sky held a somber vigil as the Civil War Volunteers paid tribute to the hundreds upon thousands of soldiers who have died on the battleground and in ditches, in the air and on the sea, those who were lost forever and those who came home in flag draped coffins. A rag-tag bunch of observers, we stood by as Old Glory rose to the sky; ‘Abraham Lincoln’ gave the eulogy; civil war soldiers raised their guns in salute, and the notes of Butterfields Lullaby rang through the air.  Then, amidst rolling hills of wildflowers and sagebrush, we walked the narrow rows of white headstones, flags waving in the breeze, and we remembered . . .