OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Oklahoma Veterans groups gathered Monday morning to observe Memorial Day at the Union Soldiers Cemetery in northeast Oklahoma City.
The Sons and Daughters of Union Veterans of the Civil War, camps Jeremiah Smith No. 1 and Sallie Peacheater Tent #18 as well as the 10th Kansas Volunteers, held the ceremony.
Originally planned for outdoors, the service was moved inside to the Department of Veterans Affairs due to the weather.
The morning was solemn, honoring the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who died in the single most violent military conflict in American history.
“While the Revolution of 1776 to 1783 created the United States, the Civil War of 1861 to 1865 determined what kind of nation it would be. The American Civil War was the largest, most destructive conflict in the Western world,” said one speaker.
Some 625,000 soldiers were killed in the Civil War. Their lives are now remembered every year.
Poetry was also recited at the ceremony.
“The moon gives you light. The bugles and drums give you music and my heart, oh my soldiers, my veterans, my heart gives you love.”
Today, all American soldiers who served in any war are remembered on Memorial Day.
After COVID-19 canceled last year’s ceremony altogether, these groups said the rain wouldn’t stop them this year.
“Memorial Day is the most solemn American holiday. In that cemetery are the graves of men from nine union states,” said one speaker.
