Memorial Day 2009

The picture is of the Los Angeles National Cemetery, taken on May 23, 2009.  The cemetery was established in 1889, at a time when the population of the City of
Los Angeles was about 25,000 and the western portion virtually vacant.  Today it is located in the heart of Westwood, with the San Diego Freeway on one side and the
Getty
Museum visible above it on the left.  The gravestones extend as far as the eye can see — more than 85,000 on 114 acres — reflecting the fallen from the seven wars that followed.    

On six stone tablets at the entrance of the cemetery are six stanzas taken from “Bivouac of the Dead,” by Theodore O’Hara (1820–1867), ending with this:

On fame’s eternal camping ground

Their silent tents are spread,

And glory guards with solemn round

The bivouac of the dead.

No rumor of the foe’s advance

Now sweeps upon the wind,

No troubled thought at midnight haunts

Of loved ones left behind.

No vision of the morrow’s strife

The warrior’s dream alarms.

No braying horn nor screaming fife

At dawn shall call to arms.

The neighing troop, the flashing blade,

The bugle’s stirring blast,

The charge, the dreadful cannonade

The din and shout are past.

Your own proud land’s heroic soil

Must be your fitter grave.

She claims from war his richest spoil,

The ashes of the brave.

Another portion of the cemetery: