The sound of taps, the echoes of heroes

This weekend of holiday outings, ballgames and backyard barbecues is routinely referred to as the unofficial start of summer. But Monday’s federal holiday has its roots in a national trauma: the Civil War, in which an estimated 700,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died between April 1861 and April 1865. As the country reflected on the human toll — 2% of the U.S. population perished — it led communities to enshrine traditions of paying homage to the fallen.

Far from being dedicated to glorifying war, it became a formal day for remembrance and honoring sacrifice.

Originally known as Decoration Day, it was established as a springtime ritual when graves of the departed are decorated with flowers and flags, speeches and poems recited, prayers offered and patriotic music performed.

There was such a heavy body count after the brutal war, the government established a series of national cemeteries, including Santa Fe National Cemetery.

The Catholic Diocese of Santa Fe in 1870 donated land to the United States next to Rosario Cemetery west of the downtown. Union soldiers who died during brief military activity in the area as well as soldiers buried at various outlying forts were reinterred here.

This national cemetery has greatly expanded over the years, even receiving remains of Confederate soldiers who had been hastily buried during the battle at

Glorieta Pass and not discovered until 1987, when a property owner using a backhoe to dig a basement for a new house found remnants of their mass burial.

On Monday, families and friends of veterans will be among the people wandering these green slopes studded with white headstones where Americans who served in uniform and immediate relatives are buried.

Beginning at 10 a.m, a crowd will gather before a rostrum for a commemorative ceremony that annually includes speakers, honor guards and rifle volleys.

Laying at rest nearby will be both notable and ordinary men and women. Some died in combat, including various Medal of Honor recipients. Others survived military action and returned home. Some were simply citizens whose lives were interrupted by service to their country. A few were homeless veterans whose bodies went unclaimed.

The roster of burials reflects the diversity of our state.

Among the graves are several members of the celebrated Navajo Code Talkers, who during World War II adapted their native language to create a secret code for transmitting military messages. Chester Nez, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942, was the last surviving member of the original group and had been among the first to see action.

You’ll find John Edward Allen, who received the Congressional Gold Medal for his service as one of the Tuskegee Airmen, a famed group of Black fighter pilots during World War II.

David Fernandez, who was born on a farm in Los Lunas, posthumously received the Medal of Honor after he was killed in Vietnam. While trying to evacuate a wounded soldier, he saved his group by covering a grenade blast with his body.

Edwin Alvin Clary got the military’s highest decoration for his actions during a boiler explosion on a Navy ship in 1910. He later worked as a prohibition agent and lived in Santa Fe.

Heroics by 20-year-old Private First Class Jose F. Valdez, who was born in the small Northern New Mexico village of Gobernador, cost him his life in 1945, less than three month’s before the end of the war in Europe. He volunteered to hold off 200 Germans so his fellow soldiers could escape an onslaught near Rosenkrantz, France. In 1947, A Navy ship was renamed in his honor. And in 2004, the name of a highway in New Mexico became another tribute.

All will be among the silent multitude remembered as the sound of taps echoes across the cemetery.