a memorial salute 2024

Joseph Elstner
Edward Felsing
H Herrmann
V. Hohmann
Moritz Weiss
Peter Bonnet
Frank Weiss
Fritz Lange
Ludwig Bauer
F. Behrens
Ernst Beseler
Louis Boerner
Albert Bruns
Hugo Degener
Hilmar Degener
Pablo Diaz
F. Vater
Emil Schreiner
J.H.Kallenberg
H. Markwardt
C. Schaefer
Louis Schierholz
Heinrich Steves
Wilhelm Telgmann
M Weyrich
H. Weyershausen
A. Vater
H. Flick
C. Bock
F. Tays
Theo. Bruckisch
Wilhelm Boerner
A. Luckenbach
A. Ruebsamen
L. Ruebsamen
Heinrich Stieler

You I'm thinking of today:  some were stalwart and brave;  others were unsure and scared to death.    My guess is that many were all of the above. 

But you were all willing to put your beliefs into action.    And you all died in the course of that action. 

You thought slavery was wrong, thought Texas should not join the new nation and split from the United States.    You made enough noise that the Confederacy put you under martial law.    They started conscripting you, or trying to.    You organized and fled, headed for Mexico, where you could travel more safely to New Orleans and the still-United. 

The Confederates found out, and intercepted you.    You fought them off for a while, but ultimately succumbed.    The monument to you stands as the first Union monument south of the line.    To this day, it's relatively unknown, though it shows a way forward for all who care about the future of monuments and memorials in this land. 

You were patriots.    Communists, Socialists, atheists, and, to a person, draft-dodgers.    The pharisatriots and patriolaters among us might never admit that you were, ultimately, soldiers after all, and American patriots through and through.

You were likely never saluted by anyone who knew what you would ultimately give.    But you did give it all, and you fell, and now you lie in the earth.    Today, let us salute you.