Memorial

Today I attended the Memorial Day event at the Pioneer & Military Memorial Park in Phoenix, near the State Capitol building.  The Memorial Park is a collection of nine cemeteries established in the late 19th and early 20th century and is a National Historic Site.  The ceremony was conducted by Picacho Peak Camp #1 of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, a group that I became an associate member of late last year (see Induction), and I was present as both a member and representing the Scottsdale Civil War Roundtable.

The event was under the auspices of the Pioneers' Cemetery Association, a non-profit, which operates and maintains the cemeteries.  I'm also a member of the association and our Roundtable was made donations to the group in recent years.

The ceremony included a reading of the history of the origins of Memorial Day and the role of the Grand Army of the Republic, the predecessor organization to the SUVCW, in its development, a reading of the Gettysburg Address and the playing of Taps.  Prior to the ceremony flags were placed on the graves of 73 Union veterans buried in the cemeteries.