Walking around the Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery this morning, a few things stuck out to me. The cemetery was wholly composed of gray and white tombstones, covered in grime and lichen, and every gravestone faced east.
This was my second time visiting the cemetery and I had never noticed that singular directionality before. I had never noticed that Stonewall Jackson faces south to a point of no egress. I had only faintly thought about the axes of access that lead to that central statuary.
I have always been more drawn to the individual narrative each site tells. Silver crosses designate confederate soldiers, circular placards designate fire fighters, and family names cluster around each other in plots throughout the grounds and amongst the trees. And I look to the shrine like nature of century old tombstones recently covered in flowers and wreaths.
I didn't realize the cemetery is still an active burial place, that it is always growing and changing, and there is a constant remembering of a past that directly connects to a modern Lexington and its families.
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