Unknown Soldier
by Judi Quelland
Title
Unknown Soldier
Artist
Judi Quelland
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
A special illumination was done at the Antietam National Cemetery in Sharpsburg, MD. Each year, on the first Saturday in December, more than 1,000 volunteers place and light 23,110 luminaries over a large portion of the battlefield � one for each casualty of the battle at Antietam (near Sharpsburg, Maryland) on September 17, 1862. This was the single bloodiest day of the Civil War.
A story of an unknown soldier is included as an overlay on the right side of this image. Inserted on the left is an image of an unknown soldier's grave marker. The text of the story is included below:
Unknown Soldier
What an incredible experience it is to be here making photographs in this old Civil War cemetery at night, with hundreds of luminaries around the grave markers. With only a little imagination one would expect to see a ghost or feel the presence of a lost spirit. I sensed movement off to one side . . .
�Who are you?�
I saw a man standing near one of the grave markers. He was unshaven, dirty and so exhausted looking I expected him to fall over. His dirty and tattered clothes were those of perhaps a farmer. His muddy coat was military and much too large for his thin frame. His boots were thickly crusted with dirt and dried blood. His kepi was also tattered and worn and I saw a couple holes in the crown. He was leaning, tiredly, on a musket.
�Who are you?�
�I�m Johnny.�
�Johnny who? Do you have a last name?�
�I reckon it be just Johnny. Mebbee I be Johnny Unknown.�
I had just been photographing one of the stones marked �unknown� and was still standing near it. There are many stones with that same engraving on them.
�Where are you from, Johnny Unknown?�
�I be from Georgia. I left home in �61 to see just what this fuss was all about. Reckon I shoulda stayed there and tended to the family farm. Guess the missus and three younguns took care of things.�
�You must have been unhappy to find yourself in a Yankee graveyard.�
�Yes, ma�am, I reckon I was. But I figure them what put me here didn� know no better. See, I ain�t got no uniform. Took this coat and cap off a dead Yankee since mine was plumb wore out. Stole his musket, too. Lost my knapsack back in some cornfield over yonder so there ain�t nobody knowed who I was.�
�Your family must have suffered, not knowing what happened to you.�
�I s�pose so. But nobody knowed me. They couldn�a sent me home. So I been wandering around here for a long time.�
�There is One who knows who you are.�
Even in the darkness I could feel his intense stare.
�Yeah? Who would that be?�
�God knows who you are. He knows everyone.�
He continued to stare at me while he thought that over. I felt, rather than saw, a small grin come over his face. I glanced away for just a second and when I turned back, he had vanished. At that moment I felt a sense of overwhelming peace � I knew, at long last, Johnny had found his way home.
God does know � He knows all the unknowns.
(written by Judi Quelland)
Uploaded
June 12th, 2011
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