Day Ten - Into North Carolina

This trip has awakened my consciousness of just how truly beautiful America is, and has made me more fully aware of how little I have explored its horizons. I had no idea of what to expect and how much I would find myself in awe of the southeastern shoreline. The swamp grasses and salt marshes have a simple and, perhaps even, - elegant beauty all there own. The area is ever changing from swamps and marshes to areas of heavy forests.

Even so, quite surprisingly, the thing that capture my attention the most during my day of traveling north from Myrtle Beach to New Bern, North Carolina, was the Williamston National Cemetery in Williamston, North Carolina. I would not have even traveled that route, had I not missed my turn and found myself on the business route instead of the main road; how fortunate it was to have gone by that route.

What caught my eye was the simplicity and orderliness of entire cemetery. My immediate thought was that this was a civil war cemetery, and as such, was certainly worthy of a closer look.

Perhaps, no more than three acres in size, with rolling hills and simple stone markers less than two foot wide by three foot in height - laid out in orderly vertical and horizontal rows, they stood like soldiers in a military procession; and I could not help but reflect back to memories of Arlington National Cemetery outside of Washington, D.C. Even though, the markers were flat stone markers and not crosses as in Arlington National Cemetery; the similarities between the two were compelling.

It was somewhat baffling how, that though I never saw an open burial plot, one marker bore the date "May 2009", as if it had laid in wait for its rightful claimant. Though the cemetery bore the title of - Williamston National Cemetery, it appeared to not be limited to military burial sites. There were frequent markers bearing the designations - "Beloved Wife" and "Wife and Mother".

The oldest marker I observed in my brief time at the site was an amazing "1698" and marked the final resting place for one - J. E Owen from (my home state) of Michigan. And yet another marker, bore a date - too weathered to read, and said simply, "unknown soldier".

In all, Williamson National made no less an impression on me than Arlington National, and I could not help but be captured by the dignity and equanimity with which all are held in the same regard, as if to say - "in death all are deserving of the same equality that they were not be accorded in life".