UCLA students honor memory of Civil War veterans

On a bright and sunny morning the day before last week’s Thanksgiving holiday 18 students in Professor Joan Waugh’s 97 seminar, “The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture,” joined her for a two hour field trip to the cemetery just across the street from UCLA. Walking through a large swath of the ground, students and professor discussed the meaning of such places for reflection, interpretation, and understanding the relation between history and memory. The Brentwood “Old Soldiers Home” was officially opened in 1889 to receive disabled Union veterans. Soon after a national cemetery was dedicated that eventually held the remains of roughly 11,000 Union veterans. After eight weeks studying and reading about the impact of the American Civil War on our nation’s historical memory in places like Washington D.C., Charleston, S.C., and Gettysburg, PA, they hardly expected to find the Civil War commemorated in UCLA’s own back yard!(to the right, UCLA students gather in front of the monument erected to the “Memory of the Men Who Offered Their Lives in Defense of Their Country” at the Los Angeles National Cemetery,” November 25, 2015)